John Walkenbach's Favorite Excel 2010 Tips and Tricks (Mr. Spreadsheet's Bookshelf)

John Walkenbach’s Favorite

Excel 2010 Microsoft

®

®

Tips & Tricks

John Walkenbach

John Walkenbach’s Favorite Excel® 2010 Tips & Tricks by John Walkenbach

John Walkenbach’s Favorite Excel® 2010 Tips & Tricks Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley Publishing logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. FULFILLMENT OF EACH COUPON OFFER IS THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE OFFEROR.

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About the Author John Walkenbach is author of more than 50 spreadsheet books and lives in southern Arizona. Visit his Web site: http://spreadsheetpage.com.

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Contents at a Glance Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Part I: Basic Excel Usage Part II: Data Entry Part III: Formatting Part IV: Basic Formulas and Functions Part V: Useful Formula Examples Part VI: Conversions and Mathematical Calculations Part VII: Charts and Graphics Part VIII: Data Analysis and Lists Part IX: Working with Files Part X: Printing Part XI: Spotting, Fixing, and Preventing Errors Part XII: Basic VBA and Macros

vi

Table of Contents Part I: Basic Excel Usage Tip 1: Understanding Excel Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Tip 2: Maximizing Ribbon Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Tip 3: Understanding Protected View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Tip 4: Selecting Cells Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Selecting a range by using the shift and arrow keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Selecting the current region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Selecting a range by Shift+clicking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Selecting noncontiguous ranges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Selecting entire rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Selecting entire columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Selecting multisheet ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Tip 5: Making “Special” Range Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Tip 6: Undoing, Redoing, and Repeating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Undoing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Redoing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Repeating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Tip 7: Discovering Some Useful Shortcut Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Tip 8: Navigating Sheets in a Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Tip 9: Resetting the Used Area of a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Tip 10: Understanding Workbooks versus Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Tip 11: Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 About the Quick Access toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Adding new commands to the Quick Access toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Performing other Quick Access toolbar actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Tip 12: Customizing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Tip 13: Accessing the Ribbon with Your Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Tip 14: Recovering Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Recovering versions of the current workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Recovering unsaved work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

viii Tip 15: Customizing the Default Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Changing defaults in the Excel Options dialog box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Creating a book.xltx template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Tip 16: Using Document Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Applying a theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Customizing a theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Tip 17: Hiding User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 From the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 From the keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 From the Excel Options dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 A setting that requires a macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Tip 18: Hiding Columns or Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Hiding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Unhiding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Tip 19: Hiding Cell Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Tip 20: Taking Pictures of Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Creating a static image of a range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Creating a live image of a range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Tip 21: Performing Inexact Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Tip 22: Replacing Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Tip 23: Changing the Excel Color Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Tip 24: Limiting the Usable Area in a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Setting the ScrollArea property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Using worksheet protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Tip 25: Using an Alternative to Cell Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Tip 26: Understanding the Excel Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Tip 27: Making a Worksheet “Very Hidden” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Tip 28: Working with the Backstage View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Part II: Data Entry Tip 29: Understanding the Types of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Entering values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Entering dates and times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Entering text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Entering formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

73 74 75 76

ix Tip 30: Moving the Cell Pointer after Entering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Tip 31: Selecting a Range of Input Cells before Entering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Tip 32: Using AutoComplete to Automate Data Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Tip 33: Removing Duplicate Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Tip 34: Keeping Titles in View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Tip 35: Automatically Filling a Range with a Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Tip 36: Working with Fractions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Tip 37: Resizing the Formula Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Tip 38: Proofing Your Data with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 Adding speech commands to the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 Using the speech commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Tip 39: Controlling Automatic Hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Overriding an automatic hyperlink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Turning off automatic hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Removing existing hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Tip 40: Entering Credit Card Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Tip 41: Using the Excel Built-In Data Entry Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Tip 42: Customizing and Sharing AutoCorrect Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Tip 43: Restricting Cursor Movement to Input Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Tip 44: Controlling the Office Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102 Tip 45: Creating a Drop-Down List in a Cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Part III: Formatting Tip 46: Using the Mini Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Tip 47: Indenting Cell Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Tip 48: Quick Number Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Tip 49: Creating Custom Number Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Parts of a number format string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Custom number format codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Tip 50: Using Custom Number Formats to Scale Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

x Tip 51: Using Custom Date and Time Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Tip 52: Examining Some Useful Custom Number Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120 Hiding zeros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Displaying leading zeros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Formatting percentages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Displaying fractions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Repeating text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Displaying a negative sign on the right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 Suppressing certain types of entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

Tip 53: Updating Old Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123 Tip 54: Understanding Conditional Formatting Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125 Data bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125 Color scales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126 Icon sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126

Tip 55: Showing Text and a Value in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128 Using concatenation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128 Using the TEXT function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .128 Using a custom number format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129

Tip 56: Merging Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130 Tip 57: Formatting Individual Characters in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Tip 58: Displaying Times That Exceed 24 Hours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132 Tip 59: Fixing Non-Numeric Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134 Tip 60: Adding a Frame to a Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135 Tip 61: Dealing with Gridlines, Borders, and Underlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136 Tip 62: Inserting a Watermark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138 Tip 63: Adding a Background Image to a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Tip 64: Wrapping Text in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Tip 65: Seeing All Characters in a Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 Tip 66: Entering Special Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145 Tip 67: Using Named Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 Using the Style Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147 Modifying an existing style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Creating new styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Merging styles from other workbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

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Part IV: Basic Formulas and Functions Tip 68: Using Formula AutoComplete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153 Tip 69: Knowing When to Use Absolute References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155 Tip 70: Knowing When to Use Mixed References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157 Tip 71: Changing the Type of a Cell Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 Tip 72: Converting a Vertical Range to a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Tip 73: AutoSum Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162 Tip 74: Using the Status Bar Selection Statistics Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164 Tip 75: Converting Formulas to Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166 Tip 76: Transforming Data without Using Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167 Tip 77: Transforming Data by Using Temporary Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168 Tip 78: Deleting Values While Keeping Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170 Tip 79: Summing Across Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Tip 80: Dealing with Function Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Tip 81: Annotating a Formula without Using a Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175 Tip 82: Making an Exact Copy of a Range of Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176 Tip 83: Monitoring Formula Cells from Any Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178 Tip 84: Displaying and Printing Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179 Tip 85: Avoiding Error Displays in Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Using the ISERROR function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Using the IFERROR function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182

Tip 86: Using Goal Seeking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183 Tip 87: Understanding the Secret about Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185 Tip 88: Using Named Constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187 Tip 89: Using Functions in Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189 Tip 90: Creating a List of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Tip 91: Using Dynamic Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193 Tip 92: Creating Worksheet-Level Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .196 Tip 93: Working with Pre-1900 Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198 Tip 94: Working with Negative Time Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

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Part V: Useful Formula Examples Tip 95: Calculating Holidays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 New Year’s Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Martin Luther King Jr. Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Presidents’ Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Easter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Memorial Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Independence Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Labor Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Columbus Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Veterans Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Thanksgiving Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Christmas Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Tip 96: Calculating a Weighted Average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Tip 97: Calculating a Person’s Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Method 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Method 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Method 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Tip 98: Ranking Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Tip 99: Converting Inches to Feet and Inches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213 Tip 100: Using the DATEDIF Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 Tip 101: Counting Characters in a Cell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216 Counting all characters in a cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216 Counting specific characters in a cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216 Counting the occurrences of a substring in a cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216

Tip 102: Numbering Weeks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218 Tip 103: Using a Pivot Table Instead of Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Inserting subtotals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Using formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Using a pivot table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Tip 104: Expressing a Number as an Ordinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Tip 105: Extracting Words from a String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Extracting the first word of a string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Extracting the last word of a string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 Extracting all except the first word of a string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Tip 106: Parsing Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

xiii Tip 107: Removing Titles from Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Tip 108: Generating a Series of Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 Using AutoFill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231 Using formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231

Tip 109: Determining Specific Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Determining the day of the year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Determining the day of the week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Determining the date of the most recent Sunday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Determining the first day of the week after a date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Determining the nth occurrence of a day of the week in a month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Determining the last day of a month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Determining a date’s quarter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Tip 110: Displaying a Calendar in a Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Tip 111: Various Methods of Rounding Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Rounding to the nearest multiple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Rounding currency values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Using the INT and TRUNC functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 Rounding to n significant digits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Tip 112: Rounding Time Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Tip 113: Using the New AGGREGATE Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241 Tip 114: Returning the Last Nonblank Cell in a Column or Row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Tip 115: Using the COUNTIF Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246 Tip 116: Counting Cells That Meet Multiple Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Using “And” criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Using “Or” criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Combining “And” and “Or” criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Tip 117: Counting Nonduplicated Entries in a Range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251 Tip 118: Calculating Single-Criterion Conditional Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Summing only negative values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summing values based on a different range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summing values based on a text comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summing values based on a date comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

252 253 253 253

Tip 119: Calculating Multiple-Criterion Conditional Sums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Using “And” criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 Using “Or” criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Using “And” and “Or” criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

xiv Tip 120: Looking Up an Exact Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Tip 121: Performing a Two-Way Lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Using a formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Using implicit intersection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Tip 122: Performing a Two-Column Lookup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Tip 123: Performing a Lookup by Using an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Using a lookup table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Using an array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Tip 124: Using the INDIRECT Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Specifying rows indirectly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Specifying worksheet names indirectly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Making a cell reference unchangeable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Tip 125: Creating Megaformulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Part VI: Conversions and Mathematical Calculations Tip 126: Converting Between Measurement Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 Tip 127: Converting Temperatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Tip 128: Solving Simultaneous Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Tip 129: Solving Recursive Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Tip 130: Generating Random Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Using the RAND function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Using the RANDBETWEEN function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Using the Analysis Toolpak add-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .281

Tip 131: Calculating Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Tip 132: Calculating a Remainder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Part VII: Charts and Graphics Tip 133: Creating a Text Chart Directly in a Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Tip 134: Selecting Elements in a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Selecting with the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Selecting with the keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291 Selecting with the Chart Element control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .291

Tip 135: Creating a Self-Expanding Chart. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Tip 136: Creating Combination Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

xv Tip 137: Creating a Gantt Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Tip 138: Creating a Gauge Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Tip 139: Using Pictures in Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301 Tip 140: Plotting Mathematical Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Plotting single-variable mathematical functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Plotting two-variable mathematical functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Tip 141: Using High-Low Lines in a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Tip 142: Linking Chart Text to Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Tip 143: Creating a Chart Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 Tip 144: Saving a Chart as a Graphics File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Method 1: Paste the chart into a graphics program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Method 2: Save as an HTML file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Method 3: Use a VBA macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Tip 145: Saving a Range as a Graphic Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 Tip 146: Making Charts the Same Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .312 Tip 147: Resetting All Chart Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .314 Tip 148: Freezing a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .316 Converting a chart into a picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .316 Converting range references into arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .316

Tip 149: Creating Picture Effects with a Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318 Tip 150: Creating Sparkline Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .319 Tip 151: Selecting Objects on a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321 Ctrl+click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321 The Selection and Visibility pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321 The Go to Special dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321 The Select Object tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Tip 152: Making a Greeting Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 Tip 153: Enhancing Text Formatting in Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Tip 154: Using Images as Line Chart Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 Tip 155: Changing the Shape of a Cell Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Tip 156: Adding an Image to a Cell Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 Tip 157: Enhancing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331

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Part VIII: Data Analysis and Lists Tip 158: Using the Table Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Understanding what a table is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Range versus table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Creating a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Tip 159: Working with Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Navigating in a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Selecting parts of a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Adding new rows or columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 Deleting rows or columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 Moving a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 Sorting and filtering a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Tip 160: Using Formulas with a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341 Working with the total row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .341 Using formulas within a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342 Referencing data in a table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Tip 161: Numbering Rows in a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Tip 162: Using Custom Views with Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 Tip 163: Putting Advanced Filter Results on a Different Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Tip 164: Comparing Two Ranges by Using Conditional Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350 Tip 165: Randomizing a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353 Tip 166: Filling the Gaps in a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Tip 167: Creating a List from a Summary Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 Tip 168: Finding Duplicates by Using Conditional Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 Tip 169: Creating a Quick Frequency Tabulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 Tip 170: Controlling References to Cells within a Pivot Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 Tip 171: Grouping Items by Date in a Pivot Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 Tip 172: Unlinking a Pivot Table from Its Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Tip 173: Using Pivot Table Slicers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Part IX: Working with Files Tip 174: Understanding the New Excel File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 Recognizing the new Excel file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 The Office compatibility pack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 Saving a file for use with an older version of Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

xvii Tip 175: Importing a Text File into a Worksheet Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379 Tip 176: Getting Data from a Web Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381 Pasting static information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381 Pasting refreshable information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .381 Opening the Web page directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Tip 177: Displaying a Workbook’s Full Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Go backstage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Use a formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 Display the Document panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386 Use a macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Tip 178: Using Document Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 Tip 179: Inspecting a Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 Tip 180: Finding the Missing No to All Button When Closing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .391 Tip 181: Getting a List of Filenames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392 Tip 182: Using Workspace Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Part X: Printing Tip 183: Controlling What Gets Printed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 Displaying the Quick Print button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 Adjusting common page setup settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Tip 184: Displaying Repeated Rows or Columns on a Printout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Tip 185: Printing Noncontiguous Ranges on a Single Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 Breaking out the Camera tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400 Shooting with the Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Tip 186: Preventing Objects from Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 Tip 187: Page-Numbering Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 Applying basic page numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404 Changing the starting page number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Tip 188: Adding and Removing Page Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406 Forcing a page break to appear where you want it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406 Removing page breaks you’ve added . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Tip 189: Saving to a PDF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Tip 190: Making Your Printout Fit on One Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408 Tip 191: Printing the Contents of a Cell in a Header or Footer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

xviii Tip 192: Copying Page Setup Settings Across Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .412 Tip 193: Printing Cell Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .413 Tip 194: Printing a Giant Banner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Part XI: Spotting, Fixing, and Preventing Errors Tip 195: Using the Excel Error-Checking Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .419 Tip 196: Identifying Formula Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .421 Using Go To Special . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .421 Using conditional formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .421

Tip 197: Dealing with Floating-Point Number Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 Tip 198: Removing Excess Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 Tip 199: Viewing Names Graphically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 Tip 200: Locating Phantom Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 Tip 201: Understanding Displayed versus Actual Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 Tip 202: Tracing Cell Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .431 Identifying precedents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .431 Identifying dependents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Part XII: Basic VBA and Macros Tip 203: Learning about Macros and VBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 What is a macro? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 What can a macro do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Tip 204: Recording a Macro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Creating the macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Examining the macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Testing the macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Tip 205: Executing Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Use the Macro dialog box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Use the Visual Basic Editor window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Use a shortcut key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Assign the macro to a button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 Assign the macro to a shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 Add a button to your Quick Access toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 Add a button to the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

xix Tip 206: Understanding Functions Versus Subs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 VBA Sub procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 VBA functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Tip 207: Creating Simple Worksheet Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Returning the user name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Determine whether a cell contains a formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444 Returning a worksheet name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 Returning a workbook name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 Reversing a string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445 Extracting the nth element from a string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Tip 208: Describing Function Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 Tip 209: Making Excel Talk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449 Tip 210: Understanding Custom Function Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 Tip 211: Executing a Ribbon Command with a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .451 Tip 212: Understanding Security Issues Related to Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453 Tip 213: Using a Personal Macro Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

xx

INTRODUCTION

Excel is a very popular program. Millions of people throughout the world use it on a regular basis. But it’s a safe bet that the vast majority of users have yet to discover some of the amazing things this product can do. If I’ve done my job, you’ll find enough useful information in this book to help you use Excel on a new level. This is the third edition of this book, and I added many new tips and beefed up many of the old tips based on feedback from readers of the previous editions.

What You Should Know This book isn’t a beginner’s guide to Excel. Rather, it’s a book for those who already use Excel but realize that they have a lot more to learn. This book is filled with tips and tricks that I’ve learned over the years, and I’m certain that about 99 percent of all Excel users will find something new and useful in these pages. If you have absolutely no experience with Excel, this book might not be the best choice for you. To get the most out of this book, you should have some background in using Excel. Specifically, I assume that you know how to accomplish the following tasks with Excel: h Create workbooks, insert worksheets, save files, and perform other basic tasks. h Navigate through a workbook. h Use the Excel Ribbon and dialog boxes. h Use basic Windows features, such as file management and copy-and-paste techniques.

1

2

Introduction

What You Should Have To use this book, you need a copy of Microsoft Excel 2010 for Windows. If you use an older version of Excel, you should get one of the previous editions of this book. As far as hardware goes for the computer you use to run Excel, the faster, the better. And, of course, the more memory in your system, the happier you’ll be.

Conventions Used in This Book Take a minute to skim this section and learn some of the typographic conventions used throughout this book.

Formula listings Formulas usually appear on a separate line in monospace font. For example, I might list the following formula: =VLOOKUP(StockNumber,PriceList,2,False)

Excel supports a special type of formula known as an array formula. When you enter an array formula, press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (not just Enter). Excel encloses an array formula in curly braces to remind you that it’s an array formula. Do not type the curly braces for an array formula. Excel puts them in automatically.

VBA code listings This book also contains examples of VBA code. Each listing appears in a monospace font; each line of code occupies a separate line. To make the code easier to read, I usually use indentation on specific lines. Although indentation is optional, it helps to delineate statements that go together. If a line of code doesn’t fit on a single line in this book, I use the standard VBA line continuation sequence, a space followed by an underscore character, to indicate that the line of code extends to the next line. For example, the following two lines comprise a single VBA statement: If Right(cell.Value, 1) = “!” Then cell.Value _ = Left(cell.Value, Len(cell.Value) - 1)

Introduction

3

You can enter this code either exactly as shown, on two lines, or on a single line without the trailing underscore character.

Key names Names of keys on the keyboard appear in normal type: for example Alt, Home, PgDn, and Ctrl. When you should press two or more keys simultaneously, the keys are connected with a plus sign: “Press Ctrl+G to display the Go To dialog box.”

The Ribbon Excel 2010 features the Ribbon user interface, which was introduced in Excel 2007. When you need to select a command by using the Ribbon, I describe the command by using the tab name, the group name, and the command name: for example, “Choose Home➜Alignment➜ Wrap Text.” This command translates to “Click the Home tab, locate the Alignment group, and then click the Wrap Text button.” Some commands use a drop-down Ribbon control. For example: Home➜Styles➜Conditional Formatting➜New Rule. In this case, you need to click the down-pointing arrow on the Conditional Formatting control in order to access the New Rule command. Many commands begin with the word File. Clicking the File tab takes you to the new Backstage View.

Functions, procedures, and named ranges The names of the Excel worksheet functions appear in all uppercase, like so: “Use the SUM function to add the values in column A.” Macro and VBA procedure names appear in normal type: “Execute the InsertTotals procedure.” I often use mixed upper- and lowercase to make these names easier to read. Unless you’re dealing with text inside quotation marks, Excel isn’t sensitive to case. In other words, both the following formulas produce the same result: =SUM(A1:A50) =sum(a1:a50)

Excel, however, converts the characters in the second formula to uppercase.

Mouse conventions The mouse terminology in this book is all standard fare: pointing, clicking, right-clicking, dragging, and so on. You know the drill.

4

Introduction

What the icons mean Throughout this book, icons appear in the left margin to call your attention to points that are particularly important. I use Note icons to tell you that something is important — perhaps a concept that can help you master the task at hand or something fundamental for understanding subsequent material.

I use Caution icons when the operation I’m describing can cause problems if you’re not careful.

I use the Cross-Reference icon to refer you to other tips that have more to say on a particular topic.

This icon indicates a feature new to Excel 2010.

Entering VBA Code Some of these tips and tricks involve Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a programming language built into Excel. You use the following basic procedure to enter a VBA procedure into a workbook: 1. Press Alt+F11 to activate the VBA editor window. 2. Click your workbook’s name in the Project window. If the Project window isn’t visible, press Ctrl+R to display it. 3. Choose Insert➜Module to add a VBA module to the project. A code window appears. 4. Type the code in the code window. When your workbook contains VBA code, you must save it as a macro-enabled workbook. These workbooks have the *.xlsm extension. When a workbook contains VBA code, you might receive a warning when you open the workbook. This warning depends on your security settings. To view or change your security settings, display the Trust Center dialog box:

Introduction

5

1. Choose File➜Options. 2. In the Excel Options dialog box, click the Trust Center tab. 3. Click the Trust Center Settings button. 4. In the Trust Center dialog box, click the Macro Settings tab. I recommend the default setting: Disable All Macros with Notification. When this setting is in effect, you have the option to enable or disable macros in every workbook you open. The exception is when the workbook is opened from a trusted location. Specify trusted locations on the Trusted Locations tab of the Trust Center dialog box.

How This Book Is Organized To provide some semblance of order, I grouped these tips and tricks into 12 parts: h Part I: Basic Excel Usage h Part II: Data Entry h Part III: Formatting h Part IV: Basic Formulas and Functions h Part V: Useful Formula Examples h Part VI: Conversions and Mathematical Calculations h Part VII: Charts and Graphics h Part VIII: Data Analysis and Lists h Part IX: Working with Files h Part X: Printing h Part XI: Spotting, Fixing, and Preventing Errors h Part XII: Basic VBA and Macros

How to Use This Book This book really isn’t intended to be read from cover to cover, as you would read a novel — but I’m sure that some people will do so. More likely, you’ll want to use it as a reference book and consult it when necessary. If you’re faced with a challenging task, you might want to check the index first, to see whether the book specifically addresses your problem. The order of the parts and tips is arbitrary. Most readers will probably skip around and pick up useful tidbits here and there.

6

Introduction

About the Power Utility Pak Offer Toward the back of this book is a coupon that you can redeem for a discounted copy of my award-winning Power Utility Pak — a collection of useful Excel utilities, plus many new worksheet functions. You can also use this coupon to purchase the complete VBA source code for a nominal fee. Studying the code is an excellent way to pick up some useful programming techniques. You can take the product for a test drive by downloading the trial version from my Web site at http:// spreadsheetpage.com. Power Utility Pak version 7 requires Excel 2007 for Windows or Excel 2010 for Windows.

Reach Out I’m always interested in getting feedback on my books. The best way to provide this feedback is by e-mail. Send your comments and suggestions to [email protected]. Unfortunately, I cannot reply to specific questions. Posting your question to one of the Excel newsgroups is, by far, the best way to get assistance. Also, when you’re out surfing the Web, don’t overlook my Web site (The Spreadsheet Page) at http://spreadsheetpage.com. Now, without further ado, it’s time to turn the page and expand your horizons.

PART

I

Basic Excel Usage In this part, you’ll find tips and tricks covering some of the fundamental uses of Excel, from selecting cells and navigating sheets in a workbook to hiding rows and columns, as well as working with the Quick Access toolbar and changing Excel’s color scheme.

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 1 Tip 2 Tip 3 Tip 4 Tip 5 Tip 6 Tip 7 Tip 8 Tip 9 Tip 10 Tip 11 Tip 12 Tip 13 Tip 14 Tip 15 Tip 16 Tip 17 Tip 18 Tip 19 Tip 20 Tip 21 Tip 22 Tip 23 Tip 24 Tip 25 Tip 26 Tip 27 Tip 28

Understanding Excel Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Maximizing Ribbon Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Understanding Protected View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Selecting Cells Efficiently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Making “Special” Range Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Undoing, Redoing, and Repeating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Discovering Some Useful Shortcut Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Navigating Sheets in a Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Resetting the Used Area of a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Understanding Workbooks versus Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Customizing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Accessing the Ribbon with Your Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Recovering Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Customizing the Default Workbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Using Document Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Hiding User Interface Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Hiding Columns or Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Hiding Cell Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Taking Pictures of Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Performing Inexact Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Replacing Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Changing the Excel Color Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Limiting the Usable Area in a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Using an Alternative to Cell Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Understanding the Excel Help System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Making a Worksheet “Very Hidden” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Working with the Backstage View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Tip 1: Understanding Excel Versions

9

Understanding Excel Versions If you’re reading this book, you should be using Excel 2010 — which is part of Microsoft Office 2010, released in 2010. I’ve found that many users don’t even know which version of Excel they use. The easiest way to find out is to press F1, which brings up the Help window. The Help window identifies the version of Excel — but you might have to look for it. If the version number isn’t displayed in the main Help window, just search for version, and you’ll find it. A more surefire method for Excel 2010 is to choose File➜Help. Then you’ll see complete details about the Excel version. So, who cares which version of Excel you use? Most of the time, nobody cares. As long as your version does what you want it to do, the version makes no difference. But if you share your workbooks with other users, the version may be very important. Suppose that you use Excel 2010 and you give a coworker who uses Excel 2002 a copy of a workbook. If you happened to use a feature that was introduced in Excel 2003, Excel 2007, or Excel 2010, your coworker may not be able to work with your file in the way you intended. In fact, if you saved the file in one of the newer Excel file formats, she may not even be able to open the file. Microsoft provides the free add-on Office Compatibility Pack. This download gives previous versions of Office support for the new Office file formats introduced in Office 2007. Therefore, you can share Excel 2007 and Excel 2010 files with users of Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003. Note, however, that this add-on doesn’t endow the older versions with any new features. It just allows the software to open and save the files.

For the record, the following table shows the major version numbers of Excel. Version

Released

Comments

1

1985

The first version of Excel was for the Apple Macintosh.

2

1987

The first Windows version was labeled 2 to correspond to the Macintosh version. Because Windows was not widely used, this version included a runtime version of Windows.

3

1990

This version included toolbars, drawing capabilities, outlining, add-in support, 3D charts, and many more new features.

4

1992

The first “popular” version of Excel. It included quite a few usability features.

5

1993

Excel 5, a major upgrade, included multisheet workbooks and support for VBA.

7*

1995

This version, known as Excel 95, was the first major 32-bit version of Excel. Feature-wise, it was similar to Excel 5. continued

10

Tip 1: Understanding Excel Versions

Version

Released

Comments

8

1997

This version, known as Excel 97, was the first version to support conditional formatting and data validation. It also incorporated new menus and toolbars. VBA programmers found quite a few enhancements, including a completely new VBA editor, UserForms, class modules, and more.

9

1999

This version, known as Excel 2000, could use HTML as a native file format and (for the first time) supported COM add-ins. It also featured a self-repair capability, an enhanced Clipboard, and pivot charts. VBA programmers could use modeless UserForms, and several new VBA functions were introduced.

10

2001

Known as Excel 2002 (or Excel XP), this version is part of Office XP. It has a long list of new features, but most of them are of little value to the majority of users. Perhaps this version’s most significant feature is its ability to recover your work when Excel crashes.

11

2003

Officially known as Microsoft Office Excel 2003, this version’s new features are improved support for XML, a new list range feature, Smart Tag enhancements, and corrected statistical functions.

12

2007

This version is officially known as Microsoft Office Excel 2007. This version introduced many new features, including new file formats, a revamped user interface, support for much larger worksheets, a handy page layout view, document themes, new conditional formatting options, much better-looking charts, a new table feature, a few new worksheet functions, and much more.

14**

2010

I used this version when I wrote this book. Microsoft Office Excel 2010 includes a fair number of new features, including Sparkline graphics, a new Backstage View for document-related operations, new worksheet functions, end-user Ribbon customization, PivotTable Slicers, an Equation Editor, and even image-editing enhancements.

* Excel 6 doesn’t exist. Beginning with Excel 7, the version numbering was changed so that all Microsoft Office applications had the same version number. ** Apparently, Microsoft is a bit superstitious. They skipped Office 13.

If you must share a workbook with someone using a version before Excel 2007, save the file as an XLS file by choosing the Excel 97–2003 Workbook option in the Save As dialog box. Pay attention to the results of the Compatibility Checker, which appears automatically whenever you save your file in this older format. This useful dialog box, shown in Figure 1-1, identifies potential problems when your workbook is used by someone who has an Excel version earlier than Excel 2007.

Tip 1: Understanding Excel Versions

11

Figure 1-1: The Compatibility Checker helps identify potential compatibility problems.

You can display the Compatibility Checker dialog box at any time by choosing File➜Info➜Check For Issues➜Check Compatibility.

12

Tip 2: Maximizing Ribbon Efficiency

Maximizing Ribbon Efficiency Beginning with Excel 2007, Microsoft made some very significant changes to the user interface in its Office products. Since the beginning of time, all Windows programs have had a similar user interface that consists of menus and toolbars. The Office 2007 designers went out on a limb and came up with a radically different user interface: the Ribbon. The words along the top (Home, Insert, and Page Layout, for example) are known as tabs. Click a tab, and the Ribbon changes to display a new set of commands, arranged in groups. (For example, the Home tab has groups labeled Clipboard, Font, Alignment, and more.) Using the Ribbon is straightforward enough. Somewhat ironically, new users will adapt much more quickly to the Ribbon than experienced users will. Long-time Excel users will spend a considerable amount of time scratching their heads and trying to figure out where their favorite commands now live. The following tips help you get the most out of the Ribbon user interface: h Don’t be afraid to click on the stuff you find on the Ribbon. This advice applies especially if you’re an experienced user who is trying to adapt to the new user interface. You can undo just about everything you do by clicking Undo (located on the Quick Access toolbar, which is on the left side of the Excel title bar by default). Or, use the Ctrl+Z shortcut key to undo your work. h To get more screen real estate, enter Hide the Ribbon mode. You can hide the Ribbon by double-clicking any of the tabs. When you need to access a command, just click the tab, and the Ribbon comes back to life. The Ribbon disappears again when you finish. To leave this mode and return to normal, just double-click a tab. You can also enable and disable Hide the Ribbon mode by pressing Ctrl+F1 or clicking the icon next to the Help icon, to the right of the tabs. h Access the Ribbon from the keyboard. Although the Ribbon appears to be mouse-centric, it’s quite functional from the keyboard. See Tip 13 for some keyboard access tips. h Note that the appearance of the commands on the Ribbon varies, depending on the width of the Excel window. When the window is too narrow to display the entire Ribbon, the commands adapt and may seem to be missing. But the commands are still available. Figure 2-1 shows the Home tab of the Ribbon when the Excel window is at three different widths. In the first view, all controls are fully visible. When the Excel window is made narrower, some descriptive text disappears, but the icons remain. When the window is made very narrow, some groups display a single icon. However, if you click the icon, all the group commands are available to you.

Tip 2: Maximizing Ribbon Efficiency

13

Figure 2-1: The look of the Ribbon varies, depending on the width of the Excel window.

h Take advantage of contextual tabs on the Ribbon. In some cases, the Ribbon displays new, contextual tabs. For example, when you select a chart, you see three new tabs: Design, Layout, and Format. Notice that these new tabs contain a description on the Excel title bar (when a chart is selected, the description reads Chart Tools). Selecting any of the following elements also results in the display of contextual tabs: a table, a PivotTable, a PivotTable Slicer, a drawing (a shape or WordArt), a picture (a photo or clip art), a header or footer (in Page Layout view), a SmartArt diagram, or an equation. You can, of course, continue to use all the other tabs when a contextual tab is displayed. h When the mouse pointer is within the Ribbon arrow, use the mouse’s scroll wheel to scroll through the tabs. h Right-click just about anything on-screen to get a context-sensitive shortcut menu. Shortcut menus are one part of the old user interface that’s still in place. And, if you’re trying to decrease your mouse dependence, you can also press Shift+F10 to display the shortcut menu for the selected item (cell, range, or chart element, for example). h Some of the tab groups contain a small icon, to the right of the group name. These icons are known as dialog box launchers. Click one, and you get a dialog box relevant to the commands in the group. For example, click the dialog box launcher in the Number group of the Home tab, and you get the Format Cells dialog box, with the Number tab selected. You can use this dialog box to specify number formats that aren’t available directly from the Ribbon. h Right-click certain items in Excel to take advantage of the Mini Toolbar, displayed above the shortcut menu (see Figure 2-2). This toolbar contains formatting tools that may save you a trip to the Ribbon. When I started using Excel 2007, I just ignored the Mini Toolbar, but I soon realized that it’s a very handy tool.

14

Tip 2: Maximizing Ribbon Efficiency

Figure 2-2: The Mini Toolbar is easy to ignore, but it can save lots of trips to the Ribbon.

h Don’t ignore the Quick Access toolbar. This is where you put commands that you use frequently. The Quick Access toolbar is always visible, no matter which tab is displayed. Check out Tip 11 to find out how easy it is to customize it. h Finally, keep in mind that Excel has additional commands that aren’t even on the Ribbon. If you come up empty-handed after performing an exhaustive Ribbon search for the old text-to-speech commands, for example, don’t despair: You need to add those commands yourself, by customizing the Quick Access Toolbar (see Tip 11) or by customizing the Ribbon (see Tip 12).

Tip 3: Understanding Protected View

15

Understanding Protected View One of the new features in Excel 2010 is called Protected View. Although it may seem like Excel is trying to keep you from opening your own files, Protected View is all about protecting you from malware. Malware refers to something that can harm your system. Hackers have figured out several ways to manipulate Excel files so that harmful code can execute. Protected View essentially prevents these types of attacks by opening a file in a protected environment (sometimes called a sandbox). If you use Excel 2010 to open an Excel workbook that you downloaded from the Web, you’ll see a colorful message above the Formula bar (see Figure 3-1). In addition, Excel’s title bar displays the text [Protected View].

Figure 3-1: This message tells you the workbook was opened in Protected View.

If you are certain that the file is safe, click Enable Editing. If you don’t enable editing, you’ll be able to view the contents of the workbook, but you won’t be able to make any changes to it. If the workbook contains macros, you’ll see another message after you enable editing: Security Warning. Macros have been disabled. If you’re sure that the macros are harmless, click Enable Content. Protected View kicks in for the following: h Files downloaded from the Internet h Attachments opened from Outlook 2010 h Files opened from potentially unsafe locations, such as your Temporary Internet Files folder h File that are blocked by File Block Policy (a feature that allows administrators to define potentially dangerous files) h Files that were digitally signed, but the signature has expired In addition, you can specifically request that a file be opened in Protected View in the File Open dialog box: Click the Open button and choose Open in Protected View. In some situations, you don’t care about working with the document. You just want to print it. Fortunately, printing is allowed for documents opened in Protected View. Choose File➜Print and then click the Enable Printing button. It would be nice if copying were allowed in Protected View — but it’s not. The only way to copy information from a workbook in Protected View is to enable editing.

16

Tip 3: Understanding Protected View

If you would like to explicitly open a file in Protected View, choose File➜Open to display the Open dialog box. Select your file and then click the arrow to the right of the Open button. One of the options displayed is Open In Protected View. You have some control over how Protected View works. To change the settings, choose File➜ Options and click Trust Center. Then click the Trust Center Settings button and click the Protected View tab in the Trust Center dialog box. Figure 3-2 shows the options. By default, all four options are checked.

Figure 3-2: Change the Protected View settings in the Trust Center dialog box.

Tip 4: Selecting Cells Efficiently

17

Selecting Cells Efficiently Many Excel users think that the only way to select a range of cells is to drag over the cells with the mouse. Although selecting cells with a mouse works, it’s rarely the most efficient way to accomplish the task. A better way is to use your keyboard to select ranges.

Selecting a range by using the shift and arrow keys The simplest way to select a range is to press (and hold) Shift and then use the arrow keys to highlight the cells. For larger selections, you can use PgDn or PgUp while pressing Shift to move in larger increments. You can also use the End key to quickly extend a selection to the last non-empty cell in a row or column. To select the range B3:B8 (see Figure 4-1) by using the keyboard, move the cell pointer to B3 and then press the Shift key while you press End followed by the down arrow key. Similarly, to select B3:D3, press the Shift key while you press End, followed by the right-arrow key.

Figure 4-1: A range of cells.

Selecting the current region Often, you need to select a large rectangular selection of cells — the current region. To select the entire block of cells, move the cell pointer anywhere within the range and press Ctrl+A.

Selecting a range by Shift+clicking When you’re selecting a very large range, using the mouse may be the most efficient method — but dragging is not required. Select the upper left cell in the range. Then scroll to the lower right corner of the range, press Shift, and click the lower right cell.

Selecting noncontiguous ranges Most of the time, your range selections are probably simple rectangular ranges. In some cases, you may need to make a multiple selection — a selection that includes nonadjacent cells or

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Tip 4: Selecting Cells Efficiently

ranges. For example, you may want to apply formatting to cells in different areas of your worksheet. If you make a multiple selection, you can apply the formatting in one step to all selected ranges. Figure 4-2 shows an example of a multiple selection.

Figure 4-2: A multiple selection that consists of noncontiguous ranges.

You can select a noncontiguous range by using either the mouse or the keyboard. Press Ctrl as you click and drag the mouse to highlight individual cells or ranges. From the keyboard, select a range as described previously (by using the Shift key). Then press Shift+F8 to select another range without canceling the previous range selection. Repeat this action as many times as needed.

Selecting entire rows To select a single row, click a row number along the left of the worksheet. Or, select any cell in the row and press Shift+spacebar. To select multiple adjacent rows, click and drag in the row number area. Or, select any cell in the first (or last) row, and press Shift+spacebar to select one row. Then press Shift and use the arrow keys to extend the row selection down (or up). To select multiple nonadjacent rows, press Ctrl while you click the row numbers for the rows you want to include.

Selecting entire columns To select a single column, click a column letter along the top of the worksheet. Or, select any cell in the column and press Ctrl+spacebar. To select multiple adjacent columns, click and drag in the column letter section. Or, select any cell in the first (or last) column, and press Ctrl+spacebar to select one column. Then press Shift and use the arrow keys to extend the selection to the right (or left).

Tip 4: Selecting Cells Efficiently

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To select multiple nonadjacent columns, press Ctrl while you click the column letters for the columns you want to include.

Selecting multisheet ranges In addition to two-dimensional ranges on a single worksheet, ranges can extend across multiple worksheets to be three-dimensional ranges. Figure 4-3 shows a simple example of a multisheet workbook. The workbook has four sheets, named Totals, Marketing, Operations, and Manufacturing. The sheets are laid out identically.

Figure 4-3: Each worksheet in this workbook is laid out identically.

Assume that you want to apply the same formatting to all sheets — for example, you want to make the column headings bold with background shading. Selecting a multisheet range is the best approach. When the ranges are selected, the formatting is applied to all sheets. In general, selecting a multisheet range is a simple two-step process: 1. Select the range in one sheet. 2. Select the worksheets to include in the range. To select a group of contiguous worksheets, press Shift and click the sheet tab of the last worksheet that you want to include in the selection. To select individual worksheets, press Ctrl and click the sheet tab of each worksheet that you want to select. When you make the selection, the sheet tabs of the selected sheets appear with a white background, and Excel displays [Group] on the title bar.

When you finish working with the multisheet range, click any sheet tab to leave Group mode.

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Tip 5: Making “Special” Range Selections

Making “Special” Range Selections In some cases, you want to locate specific types of cells in your worksheets. For example, wouldn’t it be handy to be able to locate every cell that contains a formula, or perhaps all cells whose values depend on the current cell? Excel provides an easy way to locate these and many other special types of cells. The key to many types of special selections is the Go To Special dialog box. Choose Home➜Find & Select➜Go To Special to display the Go To Special dialog box, as shown in Figure 5-1. Another way to open the Go To Special dialog box is to press F5 and then click the Special button in the Go To dialog box.

Figure 5-1: Use the Go To Special dialog box to select specific types of cells.

After you make your choice in the Go To Special dialog box, Excel selects the qualifying subset of cells in the current selection. Usually, this results in a multiple selection. If no cells qualify, Excel lets you know with the message No cells were found. If you bring up the Go To Special dialog box when only one cell is selected, Excel bases its selection on the entire active area of the worksheet. Otherwise, the selection is based on the selected range.

Table 5-1 summarizes the options available in the Go To Special dialog box.

Tip 5: Making “Special” Range Selections

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Table 5-1: Go To Special Options Option

What It Selects

Comments

Only the cells that contain cell comments.

Constants

All non-empty cells that don’t contain formulas. This option is useful if you have a model set up and you want to clear out all input cells (so you can enter new values), but keep the formulas intact. Use the check boxes under the Formulas option to choose which cells to include.

Formulas

Cells that contain formulas. Qualify this choice by selecting the check box for the type of result: Numbers, Text, Logicals (the logical values TRUE or FALSE), or Errors.

Blanks

All empty cells.

Current Region

A rectangular range of cells around the active cell. This range is determined by surrounding blank rows and columns. You can also use the Ctrl+A shortcut key combination.

Current Array

The entire array (used for multicell array formulas).

Objects

All graphical objects on the worksheet. This is useful if you want to delete all objects.

Row Differences

If one row is selected, cells that are different from the active cell. If more than one row is selected, the same comparison is done, but the comparison cell for each row is the cell in the same column as the active cell.

Column Differences

If one column is selected, cells that are different from the active cell. If more than one column is selected, the same comparison is done, but the comparison cell for each column is the cell in the same rows as the active cell.

Precedents

Cells that are referred to in the formulas in the active cell or selection (limited to the active sheet). You can select either direct precedents or precedents at any level.

Dependents

Cells with formulas that refer to the active cell or selection (limited to the active sheet). You can select either direct dependents or dependents at any level.

Last Cell

The lower right cell in the worksheet that contains data or formatting.

Visible Cells Only

Only visible cells in the selection. This option is useful when dealing with outlines or a filtered list.

Conditional Formats

Cells that have a conditional format applied (by using the Home➜Styles➜ Conditional Formatting command).

Data Validation

Cells that are set up for data entry validation (by using the Data➜Data Tools➜ Data Validation command). The All option selects all cells of this type. The Same option selects only the cells that have the same validation rules as the active cell.

When you select an option in the Go To Special dialog box, be sure to note which suboptions become available. For example, when you select the Constants or Formulas option, the four suboptions become available to help you further refine the results. Likewise, the Dependents suboptions also apply to Precedents, and the Data Validation suboptions also apply to Conditional formats.

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Tip 6: Undoing, Redoing, and Repeating

Undoing, Redoing, and Repeating This tip describes three operations that help you recover from mistakes and improve your editing efficiency.

Undoing You can reverse just about every command in Excel by using the Undo command, located on the Quick Access toolbar. The Quick Access toolbar is normally displayed on the left side of the Excel title bar. You can also press Ctrl+Z to undo your actions. Choose Undo after issuing a command in error, and it’s as though you never issued the command. You can reverse the effects of the last 100 commands that you executed by selecting Undo multiple times. You can’t reverse some actions, however. Anything that you do by using the File button — for example, saving a workbook — is not undoable. If you click the arrow on the right side of the Undo button, you see a description of the recent commands that you can reverse (see Figure 6-1). You can highlight a series of these commands to undo several actions with one click. In the figure, seven actions are highlighted, beginning with the command that inserted a chart.

Figure 6-1: The Undo button displays a list of recent actions that can be undone.

Keep in mind that you can’t undo the effect of executing a macro. In fact, running a macro that changes a worksheet wipes out all the Undo information. This serious weakness in Excel isn’t present in Microsoft Word.

Tip 6: Undoing, Redoing, and Repeating

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Redoing The Redo button (located to the right of the Undo button on the Quick Access toolbar) essentially undoes the Undo command. If you undo too much, you can click the Redo button (or press Ctrl+Y or F4) to repeat commands that have been undone.

Repeating You can repeat many Excel operations by pressing Ctrl+Y or F4. This command simply repeats the last action — unless the last operation was an Undo operation. In this case, the Undo is undone (as described in the previous section). Repeating a command can be a great timesaver. Here’s an example of how useful the Repeat command can be. You may apply lots of formatting (for example, font size, bold formatting, background color, and borders) to a cell by using the Format Cells dialog box. After you close the dialog box, it’s a snap to apply that same formatting to other cells or ranges by pressing Ctrl+Y. Or, you may need to insert blank rows at certain locations in your worksheet. Issue the Home➜ Cells➜Insert➜Insert Sheet Rows command one time. Then move the cell pointer to the next row to be inserted and press Ctrl+Y to repeat the row insertion command. Excel also has a Repeat button, but it’s not normally available. You can, however, add this button to your Quick Access toolbar: 1. Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar to display the Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Excel Options dialog box. 2. In the Excel Options dialog box, select Popular Commands from the drop-down list on the left. 3. In the list of commands, select Repeat. 4. Click Add to add the selected command to the Quick Access toolbar. 5. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box. Why add the Repeat button to your Quick Access toolbar, when pressing Ctrl+Y is so easy? One reason is that you can hover your mouse pointer over the button and Excel displays a description of what will be repeated (see Figure 6-2). Another reason is that the Repeat button is disabled if you can’t repeat the most recent command — a visual cue that may prevent you from trying to repeat something that can’t be repeated.

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Tip 6: Undoing, Redoing, and Repeating

Figure 6-2: After you add the Repeat button to the Quick Access toolbar, a ToolTip describes the task (if any) that will be repeated.

Unfortunately, repeating an operation is not perfectly reliable. In fact, it’s seriously broken. In some situations, you may find that pressing Ctrl+Y has no effect (when it should have an effect). At other times, you may find that pressing Ctrl+Y repeats the command that you issued before the previous command.

Tip 7: Discovering Some Useful Shortcut Keys

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Discovering Some Useful Shortcut Keys Excel has no shortage of shortcut keys. Your productivity is sure to increase if you take the time to learn the shortcut keys for commands that you use frequently. In the following table, I list some of the most useful shortcut keys. This list is certainly not an exhaustive one — it describes just the commands that I find most useful. Shortcut

What You Can Do with It

F11

Create a new chart on a separate chart sheet (of the default chart type) by using data in the selected range.

Alt+F1

Create a new, embedded chart (of the default chart type) by using the data in the selected range.

F5

Display the Go To dialog box.

Alt

Display the keytips for the Ribbon commands so that you can access the commands by using letters on the keyboard.

F2

Edit the active cell.

Shift+F2

Edit the comment in the active cell or insert a comment if the cell doesn’t have one.

Ctrl+Shift+_

Remove all borders from the selected cells.

Shift+F10

Display the shortcut menu for the selected item.

Ctrl+F6

Activate the next window.

Ctrl+PgUp

Activate the previous sheet in the workbook.

Ctrl+PgDn

Activate the next sheet in the workbook.

Alt+Ctrl+V

Display the Paste Special dialog box.

Alt+=

Perform the equivalent of clicking the AutoSum button.

Ctrl+B

Make the selected cells bold.

Ctrl+C

Copy the selected cells.

Ctrl+D

Copy the top cell in a selected range to the other cells in the selection.

Ctrl+F

Display the Find dialog box.

Ctrl+H

Display the Replace dialog box.

Ctrl+I

Make the selected cells italic.

Ctrl+N

Create a new default workbook.

Ctrl+R

Copy the leftmost cell in a selected range to the other cells in the selection.

Ctrl+S

Save the active workbook.

Ctrl+V

Paste a copied or cut item in the selected cell.

Ctrl+X

Cut the selected cells.

Ctrl+Y

Repeat the last repeatable command. If the last command was Undo, this shortcut reverses the Undo.

Ctrl+Z

Undo the last action.

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Tip 8: Navigating Sheets in a Workbook

Navigating Sheets in a Workbook As you know, a single workbook can contain multiple worksheets. The sheet tabs at the bottom of the Excel window identify the worksheets. Click a sheet tab, and that sheet becomes the active sheet. If the tab for the sheet you want isn’t visible, you can use the tab scroll controls to the left of the first sheet tab to scroll the tabs left or right (see Figure 8-1).

Figure 8-1: Use these controls to scroll the sheet tabs to the left or right.

The sheet tabs share space with the horizontal scroll bar. You can reduce the width of the horizontal scroll bar to reveal more sheet tabs. Just click the vertical bar on the left side of the scroll bar and drag it to the right. Another way to activate a sheet is to right-click the tab scroll controls. This action displays a popup list of sheet names (see Figure 8-2). Just click a name, and you’re there. If not all the sheet names are listed, click the More Sheets item at the bottom, and a dialog box that lists the sheet names appears. Just double-click a sheet name to activate that sheet.

Figure 8-2: Right-clicking the tab scroll controls displays a list of sheet names.

In many cases, the most efficient way to activate a different sheet is to avoid the mouse and use the keyboard. Surprisingly, many users don’t know about two useful keyboard commands: h Ctrl+PgDn: Activates the next sheet h Ctrl+PgUp: Activates the previous sheet I use these keys 90 percent of the time — but then again, I avoid using a mouse whenever I can.

Tip 9: Resetting the Used Area of a Worksheet

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Resetting the Used Area of a Worksheet When you press Ctrl+End, Excel activates the lower right cell in the used area of the worksheet. In some cases, you find that the lower right cell in the worksheet is an empty cell — not the real last cell. In other words, Excel sometimes loses track of the used area of your worksheet. For example, you may find that a workbook’s file size seems much too large. It’s possible that Excel has misidentified the used area and is storing a large number of empty cells. First, try saving the workbook. After the workbook is saved, Excel may correctly identify the last cell. If Excel still doesn’t identify the last cell, it’s probably because you deleted data but left the formatting in the cells. To force Excel to identify the real used area, you need to delete the columns to the right of your data and then delete the rows below your data. For example, assume that the real last cell in your workbook is G25, but pressing Ctrl+End takes you to some other cell — M50, for example. To delete those formatted cells, follow these steps: 1. Select all columns to the right of column G. To do this, activate any cell in column H; press Ctrl+spacebar, followed by Shift+End, and then press Shift while you press the right-arrow key. 2. Choose Home➜Cells➜Delete➜Delete Sheet Columns (or, right-click any column header and choose Delete). 3. Select all rows below row 25. To do this, activate any cell in row 26. Press Shift+spacebar, followed by Shift+End, and then press Shift while you press the down-arrow key. 4. Choose Home➜Cells➜Delete➜Delete Sheet Rows (or, right-click any row header and choose Delete). 5. Save your workbook, and Excel resets the last cell. After performing these steps, pressing Ctrl+End takes you to the real last cell. By the way, if you can’t remember Ctrl+End, you can use the Go To Special dialog box. Choose Home➜Find & Select➜Go To Special. Choose the Last Cell option and click OK.

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Tip 10: Understanding Workbooks versus Windows

Understanding Workbooks versus Windows One of the most common questions asked in the Excel newsgroups is “Why is Excel displaying two copies of my workbook?” Then the Excel users go on to describe the symptoms: The filename is followed by a colon and a number (for example, budget.xlsx:2). Normally, a workbook is displayed in a single window within Excel. However, you can create multiple windows for a single workbook by using the View➜Window➜New Window command. Most people who ask this question in the newsgroups have probably issued the New Window command accidentally. What they’re really asking for is a way to close the additional window (or windows). That’s an easy problem to solve: Just click the X on the title bar of the unwanted windows. Or, use the Ctrl+F4 shortcut to close the window. After you close all extra windows, the title bar no longer displays the window number. By the way, the multiple window configuration is saved with the workbook, so when you open the file later, the multiple windows are still displayed. Although many people are confused about multiple windows, there are at least two good reasons why you might want your workbook to display in two or more windows: h You can view two worksheets in the same workbook simultaneously. For example, you can display Sheet1 in the first window and Sheet2 in the second window and then tile the two windows so that both are visible. The View➜Window➜Arrange All command is useful for tiling windows. This statement also applies to chart sheets. If you have a chart on a chart sheet, you can arrange the windows so that you can see the chart along with its data. h You can view cells and their formulas at the same time. Create a second window and then press Ctrl+` (the key that usually also has the tilde character) to display the formulas. Tile the two windows so that you can view the formulas and their results side by side (see Figure 10-1). When you need to compare information in two worksheets (or the same worksheet in two windows), try the View➜Window➜View Side by Side command. It makes comparing two worksheets easy because Excel automatically scrolls the second window to keep them synchronized. To use this feature with a single workbook, first create a second window by choosing the View➜Window➜New Window command.

Tip 10: Understanding Workbooks versus Windows

Figure 10-1: Displaying two windows for a workbook lets you view the cells and their formulas.

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Tip 11: Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar If you find that you continually need to switch Ribbon tabs because a frequently used command never seems to be on the Ribbon that’s displayed, this tip is for you. The Quick Access toolbar is always visible, regardless of which Ribbon tab is selected. After you customize the Quick Access toolbar, your frequently used commands will always be one click away. The only situation in which the Quick Access toolbar is not visible is in Full Screen mode, which is enabled by choosing View➜Workbook Views➜Full Screen. To cancel Full Screen mode, right-click any cell and choose Close Full Screen or press Escape.

About the Quick Access toolbar By default, the Quick Access toolbar is located on the left side of the Excel title bar, and it includes the following three tools: h Save: Saves the active workbook. h Undo: Reverses the effect of the last action. h Redo: Reverses the effect of the last undo. If you prefer, you can move the Quick Access toolbar below the Ribbon: Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Show Quick Access Toolbar Below The Ribbon. Moving the Quick Access toolbar below the Ribbon eats up additional vertical space on your screen. In other words, you see one or two fewer rows of your worksheet if you move the Quick Access toolbar from its default location. Commands on the Quick Access toolbar always appear as small icons, with no text. When you hover your mouse pointer over an icon, you see the name of the command and a brief description. As far as I can tell, the number of commands that you can add to your Quick Access toolbar is limitless. But regardless of the number of icons, the Quick Access toolbar always displays a single line of icons. If the number of icons exceeds the Excel window width, it displays an additional icon at the end: More Controls. Click the More Controls icon, and the hidden Quick Access toolbar icons appear in a pop-up window.

Adding new commands to the Quick Access toolbar You can add a new command to the Quick Access toolbar in three ways: h Click the Quick Access toolbar drop-down control, which is located on the right side of the Quick Access toolbar (see Figure 11-1). The list contains several commonly used commands. Select a command from the list, and Excel adds it to your Quick Access toolbar.

Tip 11: Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

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h Right-click any control on the Ribbon and choose Add To Quick Access Toolbar. The control is added to your Quick Access toolbar, positioned after the last control. h Use the Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Excel Options dialog box. A quick way to access this dialog box is to right-click any Quick Access toolbar or Ribbon control and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar.

Figure 11-1: The Quick Access toolbar drop-down menu is one way to add a new command to the Quick Access toolbar.

Figure 11-2 shows the Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Excel Options dialog box. The left side of the dialog box displays a list of Excel commands, and the right side shows the commands that are now on the Quick Access toolbar. Above the command list on the left is a drop-down control that lets you filter the list. Select an item from the drop-down list, and the list displays only the commands for that item. Some of the items in the drop-down control are described in this list: h Popular Commands: Displays commands that Excel users commonly use h Commands Not In The Ribbon: Displays a list of commands that you cannot access from the Ribbon h All Commands: Displays a complete list of Excel commands h Macros: Displays a list of all available macros h File Tab: Displays the commands available in the back stage window h Home Tab: Displays all commands that are available when the Home tab is active In addition, the drop-down list contains an item for every other tab.

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Tip 11: Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

Figure 11-2: Use the Quick Access Toolbar tab in the Excel Options dialog box to customize the Quick Access toolbar.

Sometimes, you need to do some guessing to find a particular command. For example, if you’d like to add the command that displays the Excel Options dialog box, you’ll find it listed as Options, not Excel Options. Some commands simply aren’t available. For example, I’d like the Quick Access toolbar to display the command to toggle the “dashed line” page break display on a worksheet. The only way to issue that command is to display the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box and then scroll down until you find the Show Page Breaks check box. There is no command that can be added to the Quick Access toolbar. To add an item to your Quick Access toolbar, select it from the list on the left and click Add. If you add a macro to your Quick Access toolbar, you can click the Modify button to change the text and choose a different icon for the macro. Notice the drop-down control above the list on the right. This lets you create a Quick Access toolbar that’s specific to a particular workbook. This is most useful when you add macro commands to the Quick Access toolbar. Most of the time, you’ll use the setting labeled For All Documents (Default). The only time you ever need to use the Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Excel Options dialog box is when you want to add a command that’s not on the Ribbon or add a command that executes a macro. In all other situations, it’s much easier to locate the command on the Ribbon, right-click the command, and choose Add To Quick Access Toolbar. Only you can decide which commands to put on your Quick Access toolbar. In general, if you find that you use a particular command frequently, it should probably be on your Quick Access toolbar. For example, when I work on a chart, I like to use the Chart Elements control to make it easy

Tip 11: Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

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to select chart elements. That control is located in the Chart Tools➜Format tab and the Chart Tools➜Layout tab, but not in the Chart Tools➜Design tab. Putting a copy of this control on my Quick Access toolbar saves me many mouse clicks for every chart I work on.

Performing other Quick Access toolbar actions Here are some other things you can do with your Quick Access toolbar: h Rearrange the Quick Access toolbar icons: If you want to change the order of your Quick Access toolbar icons, you can do so on the Customization tab of the Excel Options dialog box. Select the command and then use the up- and down-arrow buttons on the right to move the icon. h Remove Quick Access toolbar icons: The easiest way to remove an icon from your Quick Access toolbar is to right-click the icon and choose Remove from Quick Access Toolbar. You can also use the Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Excel Options dialog box. Just select the command in the list on the right and click the Remove button. h Share your Quick Access toolbar: Use the Import/Export button to save a file that contains your Quick Access toolbar customization. You can then share this file with others. Unfortunately, this file also contains any Ribbon customizations that you might have made (see Tip 12). In other words, you can’t share your Quick Access toolbar without also sharing your Ribbon customizations. h Reset the Quick Access toolbar: If you want to return the Quick Access toolbar to its default state, display the Quick Access Toolbar tab in the Excel Options dialog box and click the Reset button and choose Reset Only Quick Access Toolbar. All your customizations disappear, and the Quick Access toolbar then displays its three default commands.

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Tip 12: Customizing the Ribbon

Customizing the Ribbon In Excel 2007, user interface modifications were limited to the Quick Access toolbar. But Excel 2010 lets you customize the Ribbon in many ways. Tip 11 describes how to customize the Quick Access toolbar, but some users will prefer to make some changes to the Ribbon itself. You can customize the Ribbon in these ways: h Add a new tab. h Add a new group to a tab. h Add commands to a group. h Remove groups from a tab. h Remove commands from custom groups. h Change the order of the tabs. h Change the order of the groups within a tab. h Change the name of a tab. h Change the name of a group. h Reset the Ribbon to remove all customizations. That’s a fairly comprehensive list of customization options, but there are some actions that you cannot do: h You cannot remove built-in tabs — but you can hide them. h You cannot add commands to built-in groups. h You cannot remove commands from built-in groups. h You cannot change the order of commands in a built-in group. Unfortunately, you can’t customize the Ribbon (or Quick Access toolbar) by using VBA macros. However, developers can write RibbonX code and store it in workbook files. When the file is open, the Ribbon is modified to display new commands. Writing RibbonX is relatively complicated and is the subject of several complete books.

Customizing the Ribbon is done in the Customize Ribbon panel of the Excel Options dialog box (see Figure 12-1). The quickest way to display this dialog box is to right-click anywhere in the Ribbon and choose Customize The Ribbon.

Tip 12: Customizing the Ribbon

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Figure 12-1: The Customize Ribbon tab of the Excel Options dialog box.

Customizing the Ribbon is very similar to customizing the Quick Access toolbar, which is described in Tip 11. The only difference is that you need to decide where to put the command within the Ribbon. The general procedure is 1. Use the drop-down list on the left (labeled Choose Command From) to display various groups of commands. 2. Locate the command in the list box on the left and select it. 3. Use the drop-down list on the right (labeled Customize The Ribbon) to choose a group of tabs. Main Tabs refer to the tabs that are always visible; Tool Tabs refer to the contextual tabs that appear when a particular object is selected. 4. In the list box on the right, select the tab and the group where you would like to put the command. You’ll need to click the “plus sign” controls to expand the hierarchical lists. Remember that you cannot add commands to built-in groups, so you might need to use the New Tab or New Group button to add a tab or group. 5. Click the Add button to add the selected command from the left to the group on the right.

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Tip 12: Customizing the Ribbon

New tabs and groups are given generic names, so you’ll probably want to give them more meaningful names. Use the Rename button to rename the selected tab or group. You can also rename built-in tabs and groups. Although you cannot remove a built-in tab, you can hide the tab by unchecking the check box next to its name.

Figure 12-2 shows a part of a customized Ribbon. In this case, I added two groups to the View tab: Extra Commands (with four new commands), and Text To Speech (with two new commands). I inserted these new groups between the Zoom and Window groups.

Figure 12-2: The View tab, with two new groups added.

Tip 13: Accessing the Ribbon with Your Keyboard

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Accessing the Ribbon with Your Keyboard At first glance, you may think that the Ribbon is completely mouse-centric. After all, none of the commands has the traditional underlined letter to indicate the Alt+keystrokes. In fact, the Ribbon is very keyboard friendly. The trick is to press the Alt key (or forward slash key) to display the pop-up keytips: Each Ribbon control has a letter (or series of letters) that you type to issue the command. By the way, you don’t have to hold down the Alt key as you type the keytip letters. Figure 13-1 shows how the Home tab looks after I press the Alt key to display the keytips. Each tab has a corresponding letter, known as a keytip. If you press one of the keytips, the screen then displays more keytips. For example, to use the keyboard to align the cell contents to the left, press Alt followed by H (for Home) and then AL (for Align Left). If you’re a keyboard fan (like I am), after just a few times you memorize the keystrokes required for common commands that you use frequently.

Figure 13-1: Pressing Alt displays the keytips.

After you press Alt, you can also use the left- and right-arrow keys to scroll through the tabs. When you reach the proper tab, press the down-arrow key to enter the Ribbon. Then use the left- and right-arrow keys to scroll through the Ribbon commands. When you reach the command you need, press Enter to execute it. This method isn’t as efficient as using keytips, but it’s an easy, mouse-free way to take a quick look at the available commands.

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Tip 14: Recovering Your Work

Recovering Your Work If you’ve used computers for any length of time, you’ve probably lost some work. You forgot to save a file, or maybe the power went out and your unsaved work was lost. Or maybe you were working on something and didn’t think it was important, so you closed it without saving — and later realized that it was important. The new Versions feature in Excel 2010 can make these types of “doh!” moments less frequent. As you work in Excel, your work is periodically saved, automatically. It happens in the background, so you don’t even know that it’s happening. New in Excel 2010 is the ability to access these autosaved versions of your work. And this ability even applies to workbooks that you never explicitly saved. The Versions feature consists of two components: h Versions of a workbook are saved automatically, and you can view them. h Workbooks that you closed without saving are saved as draft versions.

Recovering versions of the current workbook To see whether any previous versions of the current workbook are available, choose File➜Info. The section labeled Versions lists the available old versions (if any) of the current workbook. Figure 14-1 shows that two autosaved versions of the active workbook are available. You can open an autosaved version by clicking its name. Remember that opening an autosaved version won’t automatically replace the current version of your workbook. Therefore, you can decide whether the autosaved version is preferable to the current version. Or, you can just copy some information that may have been accidentally deleted and paste it to your current workbook. When you close the workbook, the autosaved versions are deleted.

Recovering unsaved work When you close a workbook without saving your changes, Excel asks whether you’re sure. If that unsaved workbook has an autosaved version, the “Are you sure?” dialog box informs you of that fact, as shown in Figure 14-2. To recover a workbook that you closed without saving, choose File➜Info➜Versions and choose Recover Draft Versions. You see a list of all draft versions of your workbooks. You can open them and (hopefully) recover something that you needed. These drafts are also listed in the recent file list, displayed when you choose File➜Recent. Remember that draft versions are deleted after four days, or until you edit the file.

Tip 14: Recovering Your Work

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Figure 14-1: Two autosaved versions of this workbook are available.

You can adjust the Versions feature in the Save tab of the Excel Options dialog box. For example, you can change the autosave time interval (the default is 10 minutes), turn off autosave for a particular workbook, or disable this feature for all workbooks.

Figure 14-2: If you close a workbook without saving, Excel tells you whether an autosaved version will be available.

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Tip 15: Customizing the Default Workbook

Customizing the Default Workbook When you create a new Excel workbook, you get a standard default workbook. What if you don’t like that workbook? For example, you may prefer a workbook with only one worksheet. Or, maybe you don’t like the default font or font size. Perhaps you prefer to have the gridlines hidden in your worksheets. Or, maybe you have a standard header that you always use on printed pages. As it turns out, Excel gives you quite a bit of control in this area. You can make some changes in the Excel Options dialog box. Other changes require a template.

Changing defaults in the Excel Options dialog box The General tab of the Excel Options dialog box has four setting that control new workbooks (see Figure 15-1).

Figure 15-1: Use the Excel Options dialog box to change some settings for new workbooks.

You can specify the font, font size, view, and number of worksheets. When you change any of these settings, all new workbooks will use those settings. Changing these settings will not affect workbooks that you’ve already created.

Creating a book.xltx template For a new workbook setting that can’t be specified in the Excel Options dialog box, you need to create a custom template file named book.xltx and then save that file to the proper location on your hard drive.

Tip 15: Customizing the Default Workbook

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To create a new default workbook template, all you need to do is customize a blank workbook exactly as you like it. Here’s a list of some of the items you can change: h Number of sheets: Add or delete sheets as you like. You can also change their names. h Styles: Use the Style Gallery (Home➜Styles) to customize styles. By default, all cells use the Normal style, so if you want to change the default font in any way (including fill color, number format, font, and borders), modify the Normal style. To change the Normal style, right-click its name in the Style Gallery and choose Modify. Then make the changes in the Style dialog box. h Print settings: Use the commands on the Page Layout tab to specify print-related settings. For example, you can include header or footer information or adjust the margins. h Column widths: If you don’t like the default column widths, change them. h Graphics: You can even insert a graphical object or two — for example, your company logo or a picture of your cat. When the new default workbook is set up to your specifications, choose File➜Save As. In the Save As dialog box, follow these steps: 1. Select Template (*.xltx) in the Save As Type drop-down list. If your template contains any VBA macros, select Excel Macro-Enabled Template (*.xltm). 2. Name the file book.xltx (or book.xltm if it has macros). 3. Make sure that the file is saved to your XLStart folder. Excel proposes that you save the file in your Templates folder, but it must be saved in your XLStart folder. The location of the XLStart folder varies. To find the location of your XLStart folder, press Alt+F11 to activate the VB Editor. Press Ctrl+G to display the Immediate window, and then type this statement and press Enter:

? Application.StartupPath

After you save the file, you can close it. Now, every time you start Excel, the blank workbook that’s displayed will be based on the template you created. In addition, when you press Ctrl+N, the new workbook will be created from your template. If you ever need to bypass your new default workbook and start with one of the normal Excel default workbooks, choose File➜New and choose the Blank Workbook item.

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Tip 16: Using Document Themes

Using Document Themes Over the years, I’ve seen hundreds of Excel workbooks that were created by others. A significant percentage of these workbooks have one thing in common: They are ugly! In an effort to help users create more professional-looking documents, Microsoft designers (starting with Office 2007) incorporated the concept of Office document themes. Using themes is an easy (and almost foolproof) way to specify the colors and fonts and a variety of graphical effects in a document. Best of all, changing the entire look of your document is a breeze. A few mouse clicks is all it takes to apply a different theme and change the look of your workbook. Importantly, the concept of themes is incorporated into other Office applications. Therefore, a company can now easily create a standard look for all its documents. Elements within Excel that are controlled by document themes are: h Cells and ranges that use theme colors (as opposed to standard colors) h Tables h Charts h Sparkline graphics h Pivot tables h PivotTable Slicers h Shapes h SmartArt h WordArt h Sheet tab colors Figure 16-1 shows a worksheet that contains various Excel elements. These items all use the default theme, which is known as Office Theme. Figure 16-2 shows the same worksheet after applying a different document theme. The different theme changes the fonts, colors (which may not be apparent in the figure), and graphical effects for the SmartArt diagram.

Tip 16: Using Document Themes

Figure 16-1: The elements in this worksheet use default formatting.

Figure 16-2: The worksheet, after applying a different theme.

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Tip 16: Using Document Themes

Applying a theme Figure 16-3 shows the theme choices that appear when you choose Page➜Layout➜Themes. This display is a “live preview” display. As you move your mouse over the theme choices, the active worksheet displays the theme. When you see a theme you like, click it to apply the theme to all worksheets in the workbook. A theme applies to the entire workbook. You cannot use different themes on different worksheets within a workbook.

Figure 16-3: The built-in Excel theme choices.

When you specify a particular theme, you find that the gallery choices for various elements reflect the new theme. For example, the chart styles that you can choose from vary, depending on which theme is active. Because themes use different fonts and font sizes, changing to a different theme can affect the layout of your worksheet. For example, after you apply a new theme, a worksheet that printed on a single page may spill over to a second page. Therefore, you may need to make some adjustments after you apply a new theme. For best results, decide on a theme before you do too much work on the file.

Tip 16: Using Document Themes

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Customizing a theme Office 2010 includes 40 themes. If that’s not enough, you can modify them and even create your own themes. Notice that the Page Layout➜Themes group contains three other controls: Colors, Fonts, and Effects. You can use these controls to change just one of the three components of a theme. For example, if you like the Urban theme but prefer different fonts, apply the Urban theme and then specify your preferred font set by using the Page Layout➜Themes➜Fonts control. Each theme uses two fonts (one for headers and one for the body), and in some cases, these two fonts are the same. If none of the theme choices is suitable, choose Page Layout➜Themes➜ Fonts➜Create New Theme Fonts to specify the two fonts you prefer (see Figure 16-4). When you use the Home➜Fonts➜Font control, the two fonts from the current theme are listed first in the drop-down list.

Figure 16-4: Use this dialog box to specify two fonts for a theme.

Use the Page Layout➜Themes➜Colors control to select a different set of colors. And, if you’re so inclined, you can even create a custom set of colors by choosing Page Layout➜Themes➜Colors➜ Create Theme Colors. This command displays the dialog box shown in Figure 16-5. Note that each theme consists of 12 colors. Four of the colors are for text and backgrounds, six are for accents, and two are for hyperlinks. The first ten are the colors that appear in theme color selector controls. As you specify different colors, the Preview panel in the dialog box is updated. Theme effects operate on graphical elements, such as SmartArt, shapes, and charts. You can’t customize theme effects. If you customize a theme by using different fonts or colors, you can save the new theme by choosing Page Layout➜Themes➜Save Current Theme. Your customized themes appear in the theme list in the Custom category. Other Office applications, such as Word and PowerPoint, can use these theme files.

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Tip 16: Using Document Themes

Figure 16-5: If you’re feeling creative, you can specify a set of custom colors for a theme.

Tip 17: Hiding User Interface Elements

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Hiding User Interface Elements Excel has various options that enable you to hide elements in order to customize your workspace. In some cases, you can change the display options in more than one place. For each of the elements listed in this section, I show you the easiest Hide method possible.

From the Ribbon Change the following settings by using controls on the Ribbon: h Ruler: When your worksheet is in Page Layout view, use View➜Show➜Ruler to toggle the display of the rulers at the top and left side of the window. Turning off the rulers gives you slightly more screen real estate. h Gridlines: When View➜Show➜Gridlines is not checked, cell gridlines are not displayed. If you format ranges by using cell borders, turning off the gridlines makes the borders more prominent. h Formula Bar: The Formula bar, located just below the Ribbon, displays the contents of the selected cell. To see more of your worksheet, turn it off by choosing View➜Show➜ Formula Bar. h Row & Column Headers: If this setting is turned off (by choosing View➜Show➜ Headings), you don’t see the row (numbers) and column (letters) headers.

From the keyboard Modify the items below by using the keyboard: h The Ribbon: Press Ctrl+F1 to turn the Ribbon display off or on. The tabs remain visible, and the Ribbon appears (temporarily) when you click a tab. h Outline symbols: This option is relevant only if you added a worksheet outline (by using the Data➜Outline➜Group command). If you don’t like seeing the Outline symbols, you can turn them off. Or, you can press Ctrl+8 to toggle the display of the Outline symbols.

From the Excel Options dialog box You change the following settings from the Advanced tab in the Excel Options dialog box. To display this dialog box, choose File➜Options and then click the Advanced tab. Scroll down, and you see three groups of options, as shown in Figure 17-1.

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Tip 17: Hiding User Interface Elements

Figure 17-1: Display options available in the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box.

Following are some of the more useful display options: h Show All Windows in Taskbar: When this option is turned on, each workbook appears as a separate icon on the Windows taskbar. It’s too much clutter for my taste, so I keep it turned off. h For Cells With Comments Show: This determines how cell comments appear. I prefer the Indicators Only, And Comments On Hover option. You can find choices to override this setting on the Review➜Comments tab. h Page Breaks: After you print or preview a document, Excel displays dotted-line page breaks in the worksheet. You can turn them off, if you like. Use the Show Page Breaks

Tip 17: Hiding User Interface Elements

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check box in the Display Options for This Worksheet section of the Advanced tab in the Excel Options dialog box. h Zero Values: Sometimes, you may prefer to hide all zero cells and show a blank cell instead. Control this option by using the Show a Zero in Cells That Have Zero Value check box in the Display Options For This Worksheet section of the Advanced tab in the Excel Options dialog box. h Scroll Bars: You can hide the horizontal and vertical scroll bars for a workbook. Go to the Display Options for This Workbook section on the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box and use the two check boxes labeled Show Horizontal Scroll Bar and Show Vertical Scroll Bar. h Sheet Tabs: To hide the sheet tab, go to the Display Options for This Workbook section on the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box and remove the checkmark from the Show Sheet Tabs check box. With no sheet tabs, you can use Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn to activate a different sheet.

A setting that requires a macro Turning off the display of one user interface element requires a macro. The status bar, at the bottom of the Excel window, displays a variety of information. In versions prior to Excel 2007, the user could turn the status bar display on or off. Now, a VBA macro is required to toggle the status bar display: Sub ToggleStatusBar() With Application .DisplayStatusBar = Not .DisplayStatusBar End With End Sub

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Tip 18: Hiding Columns or Rows

Hiding Columns or Rows If you have data in a column or row that you don’t want to see, you can hide the column or row. Doing this is often useful if you have formulas that provide intermediate calculations and you don’t want them to appear in a report. Or, you may just want to hide unused rows and columns so that you can focus only on the used area of the sheet. Formulas that refer to data in hidden rows columns continue to function normally. An exception is the SUBTOTAL function. If the first argument for SUBTOTAL is greater than 100, the SUBTOTAL function ignores the data in the hidden rows or columns resulting from filtering or outlines. In addition, the new AGGREGATE function has an option to ignore hidden data in rows, even if the rows are hidden manually. Refer to the Help system for information about these functions — which do a lot more than just add numbers.

Hiding To hide one or more columns, use any of these techniques: h Select a cell in the column (or columns) to be hidden. Then choose Home➜Cells➜ Format➜Hide & Unhide➜Hide Columns. h Select entire columns and then right-click and choose Hide from the shortcut menu. h Select a cell in the column (or columns) to hide and press Ctrl+0 (that’s a zero). To hide one or more rows, use any of these methods: h Select a cell in the row (or rows) to be hidden. Then choose Home➜Cells➜Format➜Hide & Unhide➜Hide Rows. h Select entire rows and then right-click and choose Hide from the shortcut menu. h Select a cell in the row (or rows) to be hidden and press Ctrl+9.

Unhiding That which is hidden also needs to be unhidden. To unhide one or more hidden columns, use any of these techniques. Note that it’s a bit tricky because you can’t select hidden rows or columns directly. h Select a range that consists of cells to the left and to the right of the hidden columns. Then choose Home➜Cells➜Format➜Hide & Unhide➜Unhide Columns.

Tip 18: Hiding Columns or Rows

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h Select entire columns to the left and to the right of the hidden columns, and then rightclick and choose Unhide from the shortcut menu. To unhide one or more hidden rows, use any of these methods: h Select a range that consists of cells above and below the hidden rows. Then choose Home➜Cells➜Format➜Hide & Unhide➜Unhide Rows. h Select entire rows above and below the hidden rows, and then right-click and choose Unhide from the shortcut menu. h Select a range that consists of cells above and below the hidden rows and press Ctrl+Shift+9.

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Tip 19: Hiding Cell Contents

Hiding Cell Contents Excel doesn’t provide a direct way to hide the contents of cells (without hiding entire rows and columns), but you can fake it in a few ways: h Use a special custom number format. Select the cell or cells to be hidden, press Ctrl+1 and click the Number tab in the Format Cells dialog box. Select Custom from the Category list, and then, in the Type field, enter ;;; (three semicolons). h Make the font color the same as the cell’s background color. h Add a shape to your worksheet and position it over the cell or cells to be hidden. You should make the shape the same color as the cell background and (probably) remove the borders. All these methods have problems: The cell’s contents are still displayed on the formula bar when the cell is selected. If you don’t want to see the cell contents on the formula bar after you use one of those methods, you can either hide the Formula bar or perform these additional steps: 1. Select the cells. 2. Press Ctrl+1 and then click the Protection tab in the Format Cells dialog box. 3. Select the Hidden check box and click OK. 4. Choose Review➜Changes➜Protect Sheet. 5. In the Protect Sheet dialog box, add a password, if desired, and click OK. Keep in mind that when a sheet is protected, you can’t change any cells unless they are not locked. By default, all cells are locked. You change the locked status of a cell by using the Protection tab in the Format Cells dialog box.

Tip 20: Taking Pictures of Ranges

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Taking Pictures of Ranges Excel makes it easy to convert a range of cells into a picture. The picture can either be a dead image (it doesn’t change if the original range changes) or a live picture (which reflects changes in the original range). The range can even contain objects, such as charts or shapes.

Creating a static image of a range To create a snapshot of a range, start by selecting a range of cells and then press Ctrl+C to copy the range to the Clipboard. Then choose Home➜Clipboard➜Paste➜Other Paste Options➜Picture (U). The result is a graphic image of the original range, pasted on top of the original range. Just click and drag to move the picture to another location. When you select this image, Excel displays its Picture Tools contextual menu — which means that you can apply some additional formatting to the picture. Figure 20-1 shows a range of cells (B2:E9), along with a picture of the range after I applied one of the built-in styles from the Picture Tools➜Format➜Picture Styles gallery. It’s a static picture, so changes made within the range B2:E9 are not shown in the picture.

Figure 20-1: A picture of a range, after applying some picture formatting.

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Tip 20: Taking Pictures of Ranges

Creating a live image of a range To create an image that’s linked to the original range of cells, select the cells and press Ctrl+C to copy the range to the Clipboard. Then choose Home➜Clipboard➜Paste➜Other Paste Options➜ Linked Picture (I). Excel pastes a picture of the original range, and the picture is linked — if you make changes to the original, those changes are shown in the linked picture. Notice that when you select the linked picture, the Formula bar displays the address of the original range. You can edit this range reference to change the cells that are displayed in the picture. To “de-link” the picture, just delete the formula on the Formula bar. As with an unlinked picture, you can use Excel’s Picture Tools contextual menu to modify the appearance of the linked picture. You can also cut and paste this picture to a different worksheet, if you like. That makes it easy to refer to information on a different sheet. Figure 20-2 shows a linked picture of a range placed on top of a shape, which has lots of interesting formatting capabilities. Placing a linked picture on top of a shape is a good way to make a particular range stand out.

Figure 20-2: A linked picture of a range, placed on top of a shape.

Tip 21: Performing Inexact Searches

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Performing Inexact Searches If you have a large worksheet with lots of data, locating what you’re looking for can be difficult. The Excel Find and Replace dialog box is a useful tool for locating information, and it has a few features that many users overlook. Access the Find and Replace dialog box by choosing Home➜Editing➜Find & Select➜Find (or pressing Ctrl+F). If you’re replacing information, you can use Home➜Editing➜Find & Select➜ Replace (or Ctrl+H). The only difference is which of the two tabs is displayed in the dialog box. Figure 21-1 shows the Find and Replace dialog box after clicking the Options button, which expands the dialog box to show additional options.

Figure 21-1: The Find and Replace dialog box, with the Find tab selected.

In many cases, you want to locate “approximate” text. For example, you may be trying to find data for a customer named Stephen R. Rosencrantz. You can, of course, search for the exact text: Stephen R. Rosencrantz. However, there’s a reasonably good chance that the search will fail. The name may have been entered differently, as Steve Rosencrantz or S.R. Rosencrantz, for example. It may have even been misspelled as Rosentcrantz. The most efficient search for this name is to use a wildcard character and search for st*rosen* and then click the Find All button. In addition to reducing the amount of text that you enter, this search is practically guaranteed to locate the customer, if the record is in your worksheet. The search may also find some records that you aren’t looking for, but that’s better than not finding anything. The Find and Replace dialog box supports two wildcard characters: h ? matches any single character. h * matches any number of characters. Wildcard characters also work with values. For example, searching for 3* locates all cells that contain a value that begins with 3. Searching for 1?9 locates all three-digit entries that begin with 1 and end with 9.

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Tip 21: Performing Inexact Searches

To search for a question mark or an asterisk, precede the character with a tilde character (~). For example, the following search string finds the text *NONE*: ~*NONE~*

If you need to search for the tilde character, use two tildes.

If your searches don’t seem to be working correctly, double-check these three options (which sometimes have a way of changing on their own): h Match Case: If this check box is selected, the case of the text must match exactly. For example, searching for smith does not locate Smith. h Match Entire Cell Contents: If this check box is selected, a match occurs if the cell contains only the search string (and nothing else). For example, searching for Excel doesn’t locate a cell that contains Microsoft Excel. h Look In: This drop-down list has three options: Values, Formulas, and Comments. If, for example, Values is selected, searching for 900 doesn’t find a cell that contains 900 if that value is generated by a formula. Remember that searching operates on the selected range of cells. If you want to search the entire worksheet, select only one cell before you begin your search. Also, remember that searches do not include numeric formatting. For example, if you have a value that uses currency formatting so that it appears as $54.00, searching for $5* doesn’t locate that value. Working with dates can be a bit tricky because Excel offers many ways to format dates. If you search for a date by using the default date format, Excel locates the dates even if they’re formatted differently. For example, if your system uses the m/d/y date format, the search string 10/*/2010 finds all dates in October 2010, regardless of how the dates are formatted. You can also use an empty Replace With field. For example, to quickly delete all asterisks from your worksheet, enter ~* in the Find What field and leave the Replace With field blank. When you click the Replace All button, Excel finds all the asterisks and replaces them with nothing.

Tip 22: Replacing Formatting

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Replacing Formatting A useful, but often overlooked, Excel feature is the ability to search for (and replace) cell formatting. For example, if you have cells that use the 14-point Calibri font, it’s a simple matter to change the formatting in all those cells to something else. The process isn’t as intuitive as it could be, so I walk you through the steps. Assume that your worksheet contains many cells that are formatted with a yellow background and in 14-point Calibri in bold. Furthermore, assume that these cells are scattered throughout the workbook. The goal is to change all those cells so that they’re displayed with 16-point Cambria in bold, with white text on a black background. To change the formatting by searching and replacing, follow these steps: 1. Click any single cell and choose Home➜Editing➜Find & Select➜Replace (or press Ctrl+H) to display the Find and Replace dialog box. If you want to limit the searching to a particular range, select the range rather than a single cell. 2. In the Find and Replace dialog box, make sure that the Find What and Replace With fields are blank. 3. Click the upper Format button (the one beside the Find What field) to display the Find Format dialog box. If these fields aren’t visible, click the Options button to expand the dialog box. 4. You can use the Find Format dialog box to specify the formatting you’re looking for, but it’s much easier to click the arrow on the Format button, click Choose Format from Cell, and then click a cell that already has the formatting you want to replace. 5. Click the lower Format button (the one beside the Replace With field) to display the Replace Format dialog box. 6. You can use the Choose Format from Cell option and specify a cell that contains the replacement formatting, or you can use the tabs in the Find Format dialog box to specify the desired formatting. In this example, click the Font tab and select Cambria, size 16, bold style, and white color. On the Patterns tab, choose black as the cell shading color. At this point, the Find And Replace dialog box should resemble Figure 22-1. 7. In the Find and Replace dialog box, click the Replace All button.

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Tip 22: Replacing Formatting

Figure 22-1: The Replace tab in the Find and Replace dialog box.

If you use the Choose Format from Cell option in Step 4, you may find that not all occurrences of the formatting are replaced — usually because one or more aspects of the formatting do not match. For example, if you click a cell that has General number formatting, it doesn’t replace cells that have Date number formatting. The solution is to click the Format button to display the Find Format dialog box and then click the Clear button in each dialog box tab in which the formatting is not relevant.

In some cases, you may prefer to simply select the cells with a particular format. To do so, perform Steps 1 through 4 in the preceding step list. Then click the Find All button. The dialog box expands to display information about the qualifying cells (see Figure 22-2). Click the bottom part of the dialog box and then press Ctrl+A to select all qualifying cells.

Figure 22-2: The Find and Replace dialog box expands to display a list of all matching cells.

Tip 22: Replacing Formatting

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When these cells are selected, you can then format them any way you like. Note that you can widen the columns in the list of found cells (by dragging a column border), and you can also sort the list by clicking a column header. Conspicuously absent from the Find and Replace dialog box is the ability to search for cells by their styles. Despite the fact that (beginning with Excel 2007) Microsoft places increased emphasis on cell styles, it’s not possible to find all cells that use a particular style and apply a different style to those cells. You can find and replace the formatting, but the cell style does not change.

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Tip 23: Changing the Excel Color Scheme

Changing the Excel Color Scheme One of the features introduced in Office 2007 was the ability to change the color scheme of the applications. You do this in the Excel Options dialog box. Choose File➜Options and then click the General tab. Use the Color Scheme drop-down list to select your color choice: Blue, Sliver, or Black (see Figure 23-1). When you change the color scheme, your choice affects all other Microsoft Office applications.

Figure 23-1: Selecting a new color scheme for Excel.

You may find that a particular color scheme is easier on the eyes. Or, you may just want an occasional change of scenery. Unfortunately, the three choices are all there is — what you see is what you get. You cannot customize the color schemes in any way, and (as far as I know) third-party developers cannot even create new color schemes. Don’t confuse color schemes with document themes. The document theme feature is an entirely different concept, and these two features are not related. See Tip 16 for more about document themes.

Tip 24: Limiting the Usable Area in a Worksheet

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Limiting the Usable Area in a Worksheet Have you ever wanted to restrict access to a certain range within a worksheet? For example, you may want to set up a worksheet so that only cells in a particular range can be activated or modified. This tip describes two ways to accomplish this task: by using the ScrollArea property and by using worksheet protection.

Setting the ScrollArea property A worksheet’s ScrollArea property determines which range is visible. The instructions that follow describe how to restrict the usable area of the worksheet to a specific range. Here’s how to do it: 1. Make sure that the Developer tab of the Ribbon is displayed. By default, this tab is not displayed. To turn on the Developer tab, access the Excel Options dialog box (choose File➜ Options), click the Customize Ribbon tab, and place a checkmark next to Developer, in the listbox on the right. 2. Choose Developer➜Controls➜Properties to display the Properties window (see Figure 24-1). 3. In the Properties window, enter the range address in the ScrollArea field and press Enter. In the figure, the range is C6:F13. You can’t point to the range; you must enter the range address manually.

Figure 24-1: Use the Properties window to set the scroll area for the worksheet.

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Tip 24: Limiting the Usable Area in a Worksheet

After performing these steps, you cannot activate any cell outside the specified range. Also, some commands no longer work. For example, you cannot select entire rows and columns. Note that the scroll area is limited to a single contiguous range of cells. There’s a problem: The ScrollArea property isn’t persistent. In other words, if you save your file, close it, and then open it again, the ScrollArea is reset, and you’re free to select any cell you like. One solution is to write a simple VBA macro that is executed when the workbook is opened. To add this type of macro, follow these instructions: 1. Make sure that the workbook window is not maximized. One way to do this is to press Ctrl+F5. 2. Right-click the workbook’s title bar and choose View Code from the shortcut menu. This action displays the ThisWorkbook code module for the workbook. 3. Enter the following VBA code in the ThisWorkbook code module (adjusting the sheet name and range address, of course): Private Sub Workbook_Open() Worksheets(“Sheet1”).ScrollArea = “C6:F13” End Sub

4. Press Alt+F11 to return to Excel. 5. Save the workbook, close it, and reopen it. If your workbook has an XLSX extension, you need to save it as a macro-enabled workbook (with an XLSM extension). When the workbook is opened, the Workbook_Open procedure is executed automatically, and the ScrollArea property is set. This method is by no means a foolproof way to prevent users from accessing parts of a workbook. Nothing can prevent a savvy user from using the Properties window to delete the contents of the ScrollArea field. Or, when the workbook is open, the user can choose to disable macros for the workbook. Another way to bypass the Workbook_Open macro is to press Shift while the file opens.

Using worksheet protection The second method of limiting the usable area of a worksheet relies on unlocking cells and protecting the workbook: 1. Select all cells that you want to be accessible. They can be single cells or any number of ranges. 2. Press Ctrl+1 to display the Format Cells dialog box.

Tip 24: Limiting the Usable Area in a Worksheet

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3. In the Format Cells dialog box, click the Protection tab and remove the checkmark from the Locked check box. 4. Choose Review➜Changes➜Protect Sheet to display the Protect Sheet dialog box. 5. In the Protect Sheet dialog box, remove the checkmark from the Select Locked Cells check box (see Figure 24-2). 6. If desired, specify a password that will be required in order to unprotect the sheet and then click OK.

Figure 24-2: Use the Protect Sheet dialog box to prevent the user from selecting locked cells.

After you perform these steps, only the unlocked cells (those you selected in Step 1) are accessible. Worksheet passwords are not at all secure. In fact, it’s a trivial matter to crack such a password. Therefore, worksheet protection is more of a convenience feature than a security feature.

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Tip 25: Using an Alternative to Cell Comments

Using an Alternative to Cell Comments As you probably know, you can attach a comment to any cell by using the Review➜Comments➜ New Comment button (or by right-clicking the cell and choosing Insert Comment from the shortcut menu). Use Review➜Comments➜Show All Comments to toggle the display of comments. The Excel Options dialog box has additional comment viewing options, found in the Display section of the Advanced tab. A user can choose to hide all comments and comment indicators — which means that your comments will probably never be seen. This tip describes how to use Excel’s Data Validation feature to display a pop-up message whenever a cell is activated. It’s a good way to ensure that your comment will always be seen, regardless of the user’s comment viewing setting. Follow these steps to add a message to a cell: 1. Activate the cell that you want to display the pop-up message. 2. Choose Data➜Data Tools➜Data Validation to display the Data Validation dialog box. 3. In the Data Validation dialog box, click the Input Message tab. 4. (Optional) In the Title field, enter a title for your message. 5. Enter the message itself in the Input Message box. 6. Click OK to close the Data Validation dialog box. After you perform these steps, the message appears whenever the cell is activated (see Figure 25-1 for an example). You can also click and drag the message to a different location, if it’s in your way.

Figure 25-1: This pop-up message was created by using Excel’s Data Validation feature.

Tip 26: Understanding the Excel Help System

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Understanding the Excel Help System Along with Office 2007 came a new type of Help system. The new Help system (officially known as the Help Viewer) is also part of Office 2010. One component of the Office Help system is its Supertip feature. When you hover your mouse over a command on the Ribbon, you see a pop-up description of what that command does. Figure 26-1 shows an example of a Supertip.

Figure 26-1: A pop-up Supertip describes each Ribbon command.

But the real Help content is found in the Help Viewer window. The following notes help familiarize you with the Excel Help system: h The Excel Help system has a single entry point. To display Excel Help, press F1 or click the round question mark icon below the Excel title bar. h The Help content resides in two places: on your hard drive and on a Microsoft Web server. The lower right corner of the Help window displays the status in a button: either Offline (shows content only from your computer) or Connected to Office.com (shows content from the Web). You can change the status by clicking the button and making your choice. In some cases, using the Online option gives you more up-to-date information. h Connecting to Office.com displays additional content that’s not available when you choose the Offline option. Specifically, you can search for templates or training materials, and also access information for developers. Figure 26-2 shows the option in the dropdown Search button list.

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Tip 26: Understanding the Excel Help System

Figure 26-2: Specifying where to search for help.

h When you’re connected to Office.com, you can identify the URL for the Help topic and send it to someone else. To do so, right-click the current Help topic and choose Properties. The Properties dialog box displays the URL of the Help topic. Select the URL text with your mouse and press Ctrl+C to copy it. The URL can be opened with any Web browser. h It took me a long time to figure this one out: You can determine which buttons appear on the toolbar in the Help window. Click the tiny icon on the right side of the toolbar and select Add or Remove buttons. You see the list shown in Figure 26-3. Items with a checkmark are displayed in the Help window toolbar.

Figure 26-3: Configuring the Help window toolbar.

Tip 26: Understanding the Excel Help System

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h When a Help topic is displayed, you can copy some or all of the text. Just highlight the text, and press Ctrl+C. Or, right-click and choose Copy. h Context-sensitive help is spotty. For example, if an Excel dialog box is displayed, pressing F1 (or clicking the question mark icon on the dialog box title bar) displays the Help window. In some cases, the Help information relates to what you’re doing. In other cases, you’re presented with the opening screen of the Excel Help system. In the latter case, you can use the Search box to find the information that should have been displayed for you automatically. h You have no way to display the Office Help window if an Office application is not running. In versions prior to Office 2007, you could double-click a *.CHM help file, and the help file would be displayed. That’s no longer possible in Office 2007 or Office 2010 because of the new Help system technology that’s used.

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Tip 27: Making a Worksheet “Very Hidden”

Making a Worksheet “Very Hidden” You probably already know how to hide a worksheet: Just right-click the sheet tab and choose Hide Sheet from the shortcut menu. And, of course, it’s just as easy to unhide a sheet: Right-click any sheet tab and choose Unhide from the shortcut menu. (You see a list of all hidden sheets.) To make it more difficult for the casual user to unhide a hidden sheet, make the worksheet “very hidden.” Here’s how to do it: 1. Make sure that the Developer tab of the Ribbon is displayed. By default, this tab is not displayed. To turn on the Developer tab, access the Excel Options dialog box (choose File➜Options), click the Customize Ribbon tab, and place a checkmark next to Developer, in the listbox on the right. 2. Activate the sheet you want to hide. 3. Click Developer➜Controls➜Properties to display the Properties window (see Figure 27-1). 4. In the Properties window, click the Visible property to display a down-arrow button; click the button to display a drop-down list and select 2 -xlSheetVeryHidden.

Figure 27-1: Use the Properties window to make a worksheet very hidden.

After performing these steps, you find that you cannot unhide the sheet by using any Excel command. In fact, you cannot even unhide the sheet by using the Properties window. The Properties window shows the properties of the active sheet. When a sheet is hidden, it’s never the active sheet. Is the sheet hidden forever? Nope. To make the very hidden sheet visible again, you use a simple VBA macro. The macro listed here unhides Sheet2 of the active workbook (change the sheet name as appropriate):

Tip 27: Making a Worksheet “Very Hidden”

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Sub UnhideSheet() Worksheets(“Sheet2”).Visible = True End Sub

Making a worksheet very hidden is not a security feature. Anyone who really wants to know what resides on a very hidden sheet can easily find out by using a macro such as the one listed here.

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Tip 28: Working with the Backstage View

Working with the Backstage View Perhaps one of the most significant new features in Excel 2010 is the Backstage View. I’m not sure why they use that name for it, but it’s the window that you see when you click the File tab. Basically, the Backstage View is where you go when you want to do something with your workbook: save it, print it, convert it to a PDF file, share it with others, or just check it for some basic information. Commands you issue in the Backstage View generally don’t affect the content of your document. In the Backstage View, the commands are arranged along the left side. Click a command and the window changes. Figure 28-1 shows the Backstage View when the Info command is selected (which is the default, when you click the File tab).

Figure 28-1: The Info view in the Backstage View.

There’s a lot more that meets the eye. For example, each of those square boxes contains additional commands. I could list every possible thing that you can do in Backstage View, but that would be some very dull reading. The best way to get familiar with this view is to do some clicking and see what you find. To get out of Backstage View, just click any Ribbon tab along the top. Contrary to what you might think, clicking the Exit command at the bottom of the command list does not exit Backstage View — it closes Excel.

PART

II

Data Entry In this part, you’ll find tips related to entering data into an Excel workbook. Entering data into an Excel worksheet is easy, but there’s an excellent chance that the tips here will improve your overall efficiency.

Tips and Where to Find Them Tip 29 Tip 30 Tip 31 Tip 32 Tip 33 Tip 34 Tip 35 Tip 36 Tip 37 Tip 38 Tip 39 Tip 40 Tip 41 Tip 42 Tip 43 Tip 44 Tip 45

Understanding the Types of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Moving the Cell Pointer after Entering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Selecting a Range of Input Cells before Entering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Using AutoComplete to Automate Data Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Removing Duplicate Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Keeping Titles in View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Automatically Filling a Range with a Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Working with Fractions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Resizing the Formula Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Proofing Your Data with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Controlling Automatic Hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Entering Credit Card Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Using the Excel Built-In Data Entry Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Customizing and Sharing AutoCorrect Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Restricting Cursor Movement to Input Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Controlling the Office Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Creating a Drop-Down List in a Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Tip 29: Understanding the Types of Data

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Understanding the Types of Data When you type something into a cell in a worksheet, Excel goes to work and makes one of the following decisions regarding the type of data you entered: h You entered a value. h You entered a date or time. h You entered some text. h You entered a formula. If you understand how Excel interprets the data you enter into a cell, you can save yourself a bit of frustration when Excel’s decision about what you entered doesn’t correspond to what you had in mind.

Entering values Any cell entry that consists of numerical digits is considered a value. Values can also include a few special characters: h Negative sign: If a negative sign (–) precedes the value, Excel interprets it as a negative number. h Plus sign: If a plus sign (+) precedes the value, Excel interprets it as a positive number (and does not display the plus sign). h Parentheses: If a positive number is enclosed in parentheses, Excel interprets it as a negative value. h Percent sign: If a percent sign (%) follows the numbers, Excel interprets the value as a percentage and automatically applies percent numeric formatting. h Currency symbol: If your system’s currency symbol (for example, a dollar sign) precedes the numbers, Excel interprets the entry as a monetary value and automatically formats it as currency. h Thousands separator: If the number includes one or more of your system’s thousands separators (for example, a comma), Excel interprets the entry as a number and also applies numeric formatting to display the thousands separator symbol. Note that the thousands separator must be in the appropriate position. For example, if the comma is your system’s thousands separator, Excel interprets 4,500 as a value but does not interpret 45,00 as a value. h Scientific notation: If the value contains the letter E, Excel attempts to interpret it as scientific notation. For example, 3.2E5 is interpreted as 3.2 × 105.

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Tip 29: Understanding the Types of Data

Entering dates and times Excel treats dates and times as special types of numeric values. Typically, these values are formatted so that they appear as dates or times because humans find it much easier to understand these values if they appear in the correct format. Excel handles dates by using a serial number system. The earliest date that Excel understands is January 1, 1900. This date has a serial number of 1. January 2, 1900, has a serial number of 2, and so on. This system makes it easy to deal with dates in formulas. For example, you can enter a formula to calculate the number of days between two dates. The date examples in this book use the U.S. English system. Depending on your regional settings, entering a date in a format such as June 1, 2010, might be interpreted as text rather than as a date. In this case, you need to enter the date in a format that corresponds to your regional date settings — for example, 1 June, 2010.

The following table provides a sampling of the date formats that Excel recognizes. After entering a date, you can format it to appear in a different date format by using the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box. Date Entered in Cell

Excel’s Interpretation (U.S. Settings)

6-26-10

June 26, 2010

6-26-2010

June 26, 2010

6/26/10

June 26, 2010

6/26/2010

June 26, 2010

6-26/10

June 26, 2010

June 26, 2010

June 26, 2010

Jun 26

June 26 of the current year

June 26

June 26 of the current year

6/26

June 26 of the current year

6-26

June 26 of the current year

Excel is smart, but not perfect, about recognizing dates you enter. For example, Excel does not recognize any of the following entries as dates: June 1 1010, Jun-1 2010, and Jun-1/2010. Rather, it interprets these entries as text. If you plan to use references to dates in formulas, make sure that the date you enter is recognized as a date; otherwise, your formulas will produce incorrect results. A common problem is that Excel interprets your entry as a date when you intended to enter a fraction. For example, if you enter the fraction 1/5, Excel interprets it as January 5 of the current year. The solution is to precede the fraction with an equal sign. When you work with times, Excel simply extends its date serial number system to include decimals. In other words, Excel works with times by using fractional days. For example, the date serial

Tip 29: Understanding the Types of Data

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number for June 1, 2010, is 40330. Noon on June 1, 2010 (halfway through the day), is represented internally as 40330.5 because the time fraction is added to the date serial number to get the full date-and-time serial number. Again, you normally don’t have to be concerned about these serial numbers (or fractional serial numbers, for times). Just enter the time into a cell in a recognized format. The following table shows some examples of time formats that Excel recognizes. Entered into a Cell

Excel’s Interpretation

11:30:00 am

11:30 AM

11:30:00 AM

11:30 AM

11:30 pm

11:30 PM

11:30

11:30 AM

13:30

1:30 PM

These examples don’t have days associated with them, so they’re represented internally as values less than 1. In other words, Excel is using the nonexistent date January 0, 1900. You also can combine dates and times, however, as shown in the following table. Entered into a Cell

Excel’s Interpretation

6/26/10 11:30

11:30 AM on June 26, 2010

6/26/10 12:00

Noon on June 26, 2010

6/26/2010 0:00

Midnight on June 26, 2010

When you enter a time that exceeds 24 hours, the associated date for the time increments accordingly. For example, if you enter the following time into a cell, it’s interpreted as 1:00 AM on January 1, 1900: 25:00:00

The day section of the entry increments because the time exceeds 24 hours. Keep in mind that a time value without a date uses January 0, 1900, as the date.

Entering text If Excel can’t interpret your cell entry as a value, a date, a time, or a formula, it goes into the catchall category of text. A single cell can hold a massive amount of text — about 32,000 characters. However, you’ll see that Excel has lots of limitations when you use large amounts of text in a cell. In fact, it can’t even

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Tip 29: Understanding the Types of Data

display all the characters. If you need to display a large amount of text in a worksheet, consider putting it in a text box (use Insert➜Text➜Text Box).

Entering formulas Normally, you signal that you’re entering a formula by beginning the cell entry with an equal sign (=). However, Excel also accepts a plus sign or a minus sign. And (to accommodate old Lotus 1-2-3 users), if your formula begins with a worksheet function, Excel also accepts an ampersand (@). However, as soon as you press Enter, the ampersand is replaced with an equal sign. Formulas can contain these elements: h Mathematical operators, such as + (for addition) and * (for multiplication) h Parentheses h Cell references (including named cells and ranges) h Values or text h Worksheet functions (such as SUM or AVERAGE) If the formula you entered isn’t syntactically correct, Excel might propose a correction. Keep in mind that the suggested Excel correction might be syntactically correct, but it isn’t always what you had in mind.

Tip 30: Moving the Cell Pointer after Entering Data

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Moving the Cell Pointer after Entering Data By default, Excel automatically moves the cell pointer to the next cell down when you press Enter after entering data into a cell. To change this setting, use the Excel Options dialog box (choose File➜Options). The setting you’re looking for is on the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box, in the Editing Options section (see Figure 30-1). The check box that controls this behavior is labeled After Pressing Enter, Move Selection. When that check box is enabled, you can also specify the direction in which the cell pointer moves (down, left, up, or right).

Figure 30-1: Use the Advanced tab in the Excel Options dialog box to specify where to move the cell pointer after you press Enter.

Your choice is completely a matter of personal preference. I prefer to keep this option turned off and use the arrow keys rather than press Enter. Not surprisingly, the arrow keys send the cell pointer in the direction that you indicate. For example, if you’re entering data in a row, press the right-arrow key rather than Enter. The other arrow keys work as expected, and you can even use the PgUp and PgDn keys.

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Tip 31: Selecting a Range of Input Cells before Entering Data

Selecting a Range of Input Cells before Entering Data Here’s a tip that most Excel users don’t know about: When a range of cells is selected, Excel automatically moves the cell pointer to the next cell in the range when you press Enter. The next cell is determined by the Direction setting on the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box (see Tip 30). For example, if the Direction setting is Down (or if the Move Selection option isn’t enabled), it works like this: If the selection consists of multiple rows, Excel moves down the column; when Excel reaches the end of the selection in the column, it moves to the first selected cell in the next column. To skip a cell, just press Enter without entering anything. To go backward, press Shift+Enter. If you prefer to enter the data by rows rather than by columns, press Tab rather than Enter.

Tip 32: Using AutoComplete to Automate Data Entry

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Using AutoComplete to Automate Data Entry Excel’s AutoComplete feature makes it easy to enter the same text into multiple cells. With AutoComplete, you type the first few letters of a text entry into a cell and Excel automatically completes the entry, based on other entries that you already made in the column. In addition to reducing typing, this feature ensures that your entries are spelled correctly and are consistent. Here’s how it works. Suppose that you’re entering product information in a column. One product is named Sugar-Free Snaphylytes. The first time that you enter Sugar-Free Snaphylytes into a cell, Excel remembers it. Later, when you start typing the words Sugar-Free Snaphylytes into that column, Excel recognizes the word by the first few letters and finishes typing it for you. Just press Enter, and you’re done. AutoComplete also changes the case of letters for you automatically. If you start entering sugar (with a lowercase s) in the second entry, Excel makes the s uppercase, to be consistent with the previous entry in the column. If the column contains multiple entries that match on the first few characters, Excel doesn’t display a suggestion until your entry matches one of them uniquely. For example, if the column also contains a product named Sugar-Free Marpinettes, AutoComplete doesn’t kick in until you type either the first letter of Snaphylytes or the first letter of Marpinettes. You also can access a mouse-oriented version of AutoComplete by right-clicking the cell and choosing Pick from Drop-Down List from the shortcut menu. Excel then displays a drop-down list that has all the entries in the current column, and you just click the one you want. See Figure 32-1. You can even access the drop-down list from the keyboard: Press Shift+F10 to display the shortcut menu, and then press k (the hotkey for Pick from List). Use the arrow keys to make your selection and then press Enter.

Keep in mind that AutoComplete works only within a contiguous column of cells. If you have a blank row, for example, AutoComplete looks only at the cell contents below the blank row. If you find the AutoComplete feature distracting, you can turn it off, on the Advanced tab of the Excel Options dialog box (choose File➜Options). The setting, labeled Enable AutoComplete for Cell Values, is in the Editing Options section.

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Tip 32: Using AutoComplete to Automate Data Entry

Figure 32-1: Right-clicking a cell and choosing Pick From List from the shortcut menu displays a list of column entries.

Tip 33: Removing Duplicate Rows

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Removing Duplicate Rows A longstanding item on the Excel wish list is the ability to automatically delete duplicate rows in a worksheet. Beginning with Excel 2007, Microsoft has made that particular wish come true. Figure 33-1 shows a range of data after it was converted to a table using Insert➜Tables➜Table. Notice that this table has some duplicate rows.

Figure 33-1: The goal is to remove all duplicate rows from this table.

Start by selecting any cell in your table. Then choose Table Tools➜Design➜Tools➜Remove Duplicates. Excel responds with the dialog box shown in Figure 33-2. The dialog box lists all columns in your table. Select the check boxes for the columns that you want to be included in the duplicate search. Most of the time, you select all the columns — which means that a duplicate is defined as having the same data in every column. Click OK, and Excel weeds out the duplicate rows and displays a message that tells you how many duplicates it removed (see Figure 33-3).

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Tip 33: Removing Duplicate Rows

Figure 33-2: Removing duplicate rows is easy.

If your data is not in a table, use the Data➜Data Tools➜Remove Duplicates command to display the Remove Duplicates dialog box.

Understand that duplicate values are determined by the value displayed in the cell — not necessarily by the value stored in the cell. Assume that two cells contain the same date: One date is formatted to display as 5/15/2010, and the other is formatted to display as May 15, 2010. When removing duplicates, Excel considers these dates to be different.

Figure 33-3: Excel tells you the result of deleting duplicate rows.

Tip 34: Keeping Titles in View

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Keeping Titles in View A common type of worksheet contains a table of data with descriptive headings in the first row. But, as you scroll down the worksheet, the first row scrolls off the screen so you can no longer see the column descriptions. A feature introduced in Excel 2007 eliminated this age-old spreadsheet problem — but only if your data is in the form of a table (created with Insert➜Tables➜Table). Figure 34-1 shows a table that has been scrolled down. Normally, the column headers are scrolled out of view. But, when you’re working with a table, Excel displays the column headers where the column letters normally appear.

Figure 34-1: The column headers for this table are displayed where the column letters normally appear.

Note that the column headers are visible only when a cell within the table is selected. If your data isn’t in the form of a table, you have to resort to the old-fashioned method: freeze panes. This method keeps the headings visible while you’re scrolling through the worksheet. To freeze the first row, choose View➜Window➜Freeze Panes➜Freeze Top Row. Excel inserts a dark horizontal line to indicate the frozen row. To freeze the first column, choose View➜ Window➜Freeze Panes➜Freeze First Column. If you want to freeze more than one column or one row, move the cell pointer to the cell below and to the right of where you want the freeze to occur. Then choose View➜Window➜Freeze Panes➜Freeze Panes. For example, if you want to freeze the first two rows and the first column, move the cell pointer to cell B3 before you issue the command. To freeze the first three rows (but not any columns), select cell A4 before you issue the Freeze Panes command. Some navigation keys operate as though the frozen rows or columns don’t exist. For example, if you press Ctrl+Home while the worksheet has frozen panes, the cell selector moves to the upper left unfrozen cell. Similarly, the Home key moves to the first unfrozen cell in the current row. You can move into the frozen rows or columns by using the direction keys or your mouse. To remove the frozen panes, choose View➜Window➜Freeze Panes➜Unfreeze Panes.

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Tip 35: Automatically Filling a Range with a Series

Automatically Filling a Range with a Series If you need to fill a range with a series of values, one approach is to enter the first value, write a formula to calculate the next value, and copy the formula. For example, Figure 35-1 shows a series of consecutive numbers in column A. Cell A1 contains the value 1, and cell A2 contains this formula, which was copied down the column: =A1+1

Figure 35-1: Excel offers an easy way to generate a series of values like these.

Another approach is to let Excel do the work by using the handy Autofill feature: 1. Enter 1 into cell A1. 2. Enter 2 into cell A2. 3. Select A1:A2. 4. Move the mouse cursor to the lower right corner of cell A2 (the cell’s fill handle) and when the mouse pointer turns into a black plus sign, drag down the column to fill in the cells. You can turn this behavior on and off. If cells don’t have a fill handle, choose File➜ Options and click the Advanced tab in the Excel Options dialog box. Select the check box labeled Enable Fill Handle and Cell Drag-And-Drop.

The data entered in Steps 1 and 2 provide Excel with the information it needs to determine which type of series to use. If you entered 3 into cell A2, the series would then consist of odd integers: 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on. Here’s another Autofill trick: If the data you start with is irregular, Excel completes the Autofill action by doing a linear regression and fills in the predicted values. Figure 35-2 shows a worksheet with monthly sales values for January through July. If you use Autofill after selecting C2:C8,

Tip 35: Automatically Filling a Range with a Series

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Excel extends the best fit linear sales trend and fills in the missing values. Figure 35-3 shows the predicted values, along with a chart.

Figure 35-2: Use Autofill to perform a linear regression and predict sales values for August through December.

Figure 35-3: The sales figures, after using Autofill to predict the last five months.

Autofill also works with dates and even a few text items — day names and month names. The following table lists a few examples of the types of data that can be Autofilled. First Value

Autofilled Values

Sunday

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and so on

Quarter-1

Quarter-2, Quarter-3, Quarter-4, Quarter-1, and so on

Jan

Feb, Mar, Apr, and so on

January

February, March, April, and so on

Month 1

Month 2, Month 3, Month 4, and so on

You can also create your own lists of items to be Autofilled. To do so, open the Excel Options dialog box and click the Advanced tab. Then scroll down and click the Edit Custom Lists button to display the Custom Lists dialog box. Enter your items in the List Entries box (each on a new

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Tip 35: Automatically Filling a Range with a Series

line). Then click the Add button to create the list. Figure 35-4 shows a custom list of region names that use Roman numerals.

Figure 35-4: These region names work with the Excel Autofill feature.

For more control over what happens when using Autofill, use the right mouse button to click and drag the fill handle. When you release the button, you see a shortcut menu with some options (see Figure 35-5). The items that are available on the shortcut menu depend on the type of data selected. For example, if the first cell in the series contains a date, the date-related options are enabled.

Figure 35-5: The shortcut menu for Autofill.

Tip 36: Working with Fractions

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Working with Fractions Although most users work with decimal values, some types of data are normally displayed as fractions, not as decimals. This tip describes how to enter noninteger values as fractions. To enter a whole number and a fraction into a cell, leave a space between the whole number and the fractional part. For example, to display 67⁄8, type 6 7/8 and then press Enter. When you select the cell, 6.875 appears on the Formula bar, and the cell entry appears as a fraction. If you have only a fraction (for example, 1⁄8), you must enter a zero first, like this: 0 1/8 — otherwise, Excel likely assumes that you’re entering a date. When you select the cell and look at the Formula bar, you see 0.125. In the cell, you see 1/8. If the numerator is larger than the denominator, Excel converts it to a whole number and a fraction. For example, if you enter 0 65/8, Excel converts it to 8 1/8. After you enter a fraction, bring up the Format Cells dialog box and take a look at the number format for the cell. You see that Excel automatically applied one of its Fraction number formats (see Figure 36-1).

Figure 36-1: A list of the Excel built-in Fraction number formats.

Figure 36-2 shows a worksheet that displays fractional data. The values in column C are expressed in 4ths, 8ths, and 16ths, and the values in column D are all in 16ths. If none of the built-in Fraction number formats meets your needs, you might be able to create a custom number format. Press Ctrl+1, and in the Format Cells dialog box, click the Number tab. In

88

Tip 36: Working with Fractions

the Category list, click Custom and then enter a number format string in the Type field. For example, enter the following Number format string in the Type field to display a value in 32nds: # ??/32

Figure 36-2: Displaying values as fractions.

The following number format string displays a value in terms of fractional dollars. For example, the value 154.87 is displayed as 154 and 87/100 Dollars. 0 “and “??/100 “Dollars”

The following example displays the value in 16ths, with a quotation mark appended to the right. This format string is useful when you deal with inches (for example, 2⁄16”). # ??/16\”

Tip 37: Resizing the Formula Bar

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Resizing the Formula Bar In earlier versions of Excel, editing a cell that contains a lengthy formula or lots of text often obscures the worksheet. Figure 37-1 shows Excel 2003 when a cell that contains lengthy text is selected. Notice that many of the cells are covered up by the expanded Formula bar. Beginning with Excel 2007, this problem is fixed thanks to a resizable Formula bar.

Figure 37-1: In previous versions, editing a lengthy formula or a cell that contains lots of text often obscures the worksheet.

The Excel 2010 (and Excel 2007) Formula bar displays a small vertical scroller on the right, but it might not be obvious that you can drag the bottom border of the Formula bar to change its height. Figure 37-2 shows an example of the resized Formula bar. As you can see, increasing the height of the Formula bar doesn’t obscure the information in the worksheet. The ability to change the height of the Formula bar is a relatively minor change, but it can be very helpful — if you know that it exists.

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Tip 37: Resizing the Formula Bar

Figure 37-2: Changing the height of the formula bar makes it much easier to edit lengthy formulas, and you can still view all cells in your worksheet.

Also useful is a shortcut key combination: Ctrl+Shift+U. Pressing this key combination toggles the height of the Formula bar to show either one row or the previous size.

Tip 38: Proofing Your Data with Audio

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Proofing Your Data with Audio Excel 2002 introduced a handy feature: text-to-speech. In other words, Excel is capable of speaking to you. You can have this feature read back a specific range of cells, or you can set it up so that it reads the data as you enter it. For some reason, this feature appears to be missing in action, beginning with Excel 2007. You can search the Ribbon all day and not find a trace of the text-to-speech feature. Fortunately, the feature is still available — you just need to spend a few minutes to make it available.

Adding speech commands to the Ribbon Following are instructions to add these commands to a new group in the Review tab of the Ribbon: 1. Right-click the Ribbon and then choose Customize the Ribbon from the shortcut menu. Excel displays the Customize Ribbon tab of the Excel Options dialog box. 2. In the list box on the right, select Review and click New Group. 3. Click Rename and give the group a name, such as Speech. 4. Click the drop-down list on the left and choose Commands Not in the Ribbon. 5. Scroll down the list, and you find five items that begin with the word Speak; select each one and then click Add. They’re added to the newly created group. 6. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box. After you perform these steps, the Review tab displays a new group with five new icons (see Figure 38-1).

Figure 38-1: Speech commands added to the Ribbon.

Using the speech commands To read a range of cells, select the range first and then click the Speak Cells button. You can also specify the orientation (By Rows or By Columns). To read the data as it’s entered, click the Speak On Enter button.

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Tip 38: Proofing Your Data with Audio

Some people (myself included) find the voice in this “love it or hate it” feature much too annoying to use for any extended period. And, if you enter the data at a relatively rapid clip, the voice simply cannot keep up with you. You have a small bit of control over the voice used in the Excel text-to-speech feature. To adjust the voice, open the Windows Control Panel and display the Speech Properties dialog box (see Figure 38-2). You can choose a different voice and also adjust the speed. Click the Preview Voice button to help make your choices.

Figure 38-2: Use the Speech Properties dialog box to adjust the voice.

Tip 39: Controlling Automatic Hyperlinks

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Controlling Automatic Hyperlinks One of the most common Excel questions is “How can I prevent Excel from creating automatic hyperlinks?” Normally, Excel watches you type, and if it looks at all like you’re typing an e-mail address or a Web URL, the entry is converted into a hyperlink. Sometimes that capability is helpful, but sometimes it’s not.

Overriding an automatic hyperlink To override a single automatic hyperlink, just click Undo (or press Ctrl+Z) after you enter the text. The hyperlink disappears, but the text you entered remains intact. Another option is to precede the entry with an apostrophe so that it’s evaluated as plain text.

Turning off automatic hyperlinks If you never want to create automatic hyperlinks, here’s how to turn off this feature (it’s not exactly intuitive): 1. Choose File➜Options to display the Excel Options dialog box. 2. Click the Proofing tab. 3. Click the AutoCorrect Options button to display the AutoCorrect dialog box. 4. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab and deselect the Internet and Network Paths with Hyperlinks check box (see Figure 39-1).

Figure 39-1: Use the AutoCorrect dialog box to turn off automatic hyperlinks.

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Tip 39: Controlling Automatic Hyperlinks

Removing existing hyperlinks To remove a hyperlink from a cell (but keep the cell’s contents), right-click the cell and choose Remove Hyperlink from the shortcut menu. In previous versions of Excel, you were forced to delete hyperlinks one at a time. Excel 2010 finally gets it right and lets you remove multiple hyperlinks with a single action. Just select the range, right-click, and choose Remove Hyperlinks. This command works even if the selection includes cells that don’t contain a hyperlink. To remove all hyperlinks on a worksheet, press Ctrl+A to select all cells. Then right-click any cell and choose Remove Hyperlinks. Depending on the location of the cell pointer, you may need to press Ctrl+A twice to select all cells.

Tip 40: Entering Credit Card Numbers

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Entering Credit Card Numbers If you’ve ever tried to enter a 16-digit credit card number into a cell, you might have discovered that Excel always changes the last digit to a zero. Why? The reason is that Excel can handle only 15 digits of numerical accuracy. If you need to store credit card numbers in a worksheet, you have two options: h Precede the credit card number with an apostrophe. Excel then interprets the data as a text string rather than as a number. h Preformat the cell or range by using the Text number format. Select the range, choose Home➜Number, and then select Text from the Number Format drop-down control. This tip, of course, also applies to other long numbers (such as part numbers) that aren’t used in numeric calculations.

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Tip 41: Using the Excel Built-In Data Entry Form

Using the Excel Built-In Data Entry Form When entering data into an Excel list, some people prefer to use Excel’s data entry form — a dialog box that adjusts to your data. Before you can use this form, you have to set up the column headers in your worksheet. Alternatively, you can designate the data range as a table, by choosing Insert➜Tables➜Table. The Data Form command doesn’t appear on the Ribbon, so you need to do a bit of prep work. Here’s how to add the command to the Quick Access toolbar: 1. Right-click the Quick Access toolbar and choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar from the shortcut menu. Excel displays the Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Excel Options dialog box. 2. In the drop-down list on the left, choose Commands Not in the Ribbon. 3. In the list box on the left, choose Form and then click the Add button. 4. Click OK to close the Excel Options dialog box. After you perform these steps, your Quick Access toolbar includes a new icon that, when clicked, displays the data entry form. Activate any cell within your list and choose the Form command from your Quick Access toolbar. You see a dialog box like the one shown in Figure 41-1. (The fields shown in the dialog box vary, depending on your column headers.)

Figure 41-1: The Excel data entry form.

If the number of columns in your list exceeds the limit of your display, the dialog box contains two columns of field names. If your list consists of more than 32 columns, however, the Form command doesn’t work. You must forgo this method of data entry and enter the information directly into the cells.

Tip 41: Using the Excel Built-In Data Entry Form

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When the Data Form dialog box appears, the first record (if any) in the list is displayed. Notice the indicator in the upper right corner of the dialog box; this indicator tells you which record is selected and the total number of records in the list. To enter a new record, click the New button to clear the fields. Then you can enter the new information into the appropriate fields. Press Tab or Shift+Tab to move among the fields. When you click the New (or Close) button, the data that you entered is appended to the bottom of the list. You also can press Enter, which is equivalent to clicking the New button. If your list contains any formulas, they’re also entered automatically into the new record in the list for you. If your list is named Database, Excel automatically extends the range definition to include the new row or rows that you add to the list by using the Data Form dialog box. Note that this method works only if the list has the name Database; no other name works. Use the Formulas➜Defined Names➜Define Name command to name the range. If your list is in a table (created using Insert➜Tables➜Table), there’s no need to name the range. The table will be expanded automatically when you add new data.

You can use the Data Form dialog box for more than just data entry. You can edit existing data in the list, view data one record at a time, delete records, and display records that meet certain criteria. The dialog box contains a number of additional buttons: h Delete: Deletes the displayed record. h Restore: Restores any information that you edited. You must click this button before you click the New button. h Find Prev: Displays the previous record in the list. If you entered a criterion, this button displays the previous record that matches the criterion. h Find Next: Displays the next record in the list. If you entered a criterion, this button displays the next record that matches the criterion. h Criteria: Clears the fields and lets you enter a criterion on which to search for records. For example, to locate records that have a List Price less than $200,000, enter